Bangkok in Photos: Khlong Saen Saeb

Khlong Saen Saeb: The last remnants of the canal transportation system in a city once dubbed "The Venice of the East". Most canals have been filled in and converted to roads, but this one has survived. A putrid odor emanates from the dead, oxygen deprived water, particularly in the hot season when the water levels are low, but if you can put up with the smell and the possibility of splash, this is one of the fastest, cheapest ways to penetrate the heart of Bangkok.

50 years ago, life along the canals must have been lovely with frogs, flowers and birds in abundance. Not much lives in that water now aside from bacteria, but I have heard of a certain breed of walking amphibious fish that populates the canal and the lands nearby.
Money is collected by boat staff who trot dexterously around the outer ledge of the boat.
Here, a boat pulls into the central pier at Pratunam.

Khao Sarn Road

Khao Sarn Road (KSR), for those who haven't had the pleasure, is the ultimate backpacker's ghetto in Bangkok. By day it does brisk business in Thai tourist trinkets, bags, shirts, books, fake university degrees and such - but KSR exists for the night. The real excitement takes place under gaudy neon. Katoey (lady-boy) look for unknowing Johns straight off the plane, who haven't yet learned that Thai women never have deep voices and big hands. Pickpockets have a heyday with the drunkards. Taxi drivers loiter about searching for someone to "take for a ride". It's a concentration of the worst of Bangkok, but it's a brilliant spot for people watching.

KSR is not Bangkok at all, but a kind of vortex that pulls tourists in, and doesn't allow them to leave. Inconveniently located away from the city center, it takes great motivation and strength of mind for the average visitor to leave the road and see other parts of Bangkok, which is a great shame. I would assert that if all you've seen of it is KSR, you haven't actually been to Bangkok. It's like transiting in Istanbul and saying you've been to Turkey. You've just been in the waiting lounge.

Go Chang!

Chang, or elephant, is more than just a low-cost, high-alcohol (6.5%) Thai beer, which my former Thai language teacher said he drank over other beers because he's "kikiat chee" or "lazy to piss". Chang is also a magnificent "Koh", or island, in the east of Thailand near the Cambodian border. Overlooked by tourists heading south to "the beaches", many people must have been confused and not realized that "The Beach" is just a book and movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and there are no paradise pot crops and utopian communities living on Koh Pi Pi, just a lot of drunken Europeans.

Koh Chang is no secret, but it's a beautiful and, so far, tastefully developed island. Here you feel you're living with Thai people, and not that you've driven them out and replaced them with banana pancakes. Getting here from Bangkok costs a fraction of that to get to the southern islands, and once you're here the food and booze are half the price, too. Have you grasped my advice yet? Skip the full moon party on Koh Pha Ngan, unless of course you like dancing on broken glass, and Go Chang!In other news, I ship out for Cebu in the Philippines late Wednesday night and arrive Thursday morning to witness the weekend Sinulog festival. Apparently, Filipino festivals are quite mad. During Easter, devotees in the predominately Catholic country actually volunteer to be nailed onto crosses, like, for real. For the rest of us, choking down marshmallow peeps is suffering enough.

Under the Sea

I spent the end of '07 on a raucous beach on the island of Koh Pha Ngan in Thailand, and after growing tired of that washed up island went to the decidedly more pleasant Koh Tao to the north to soak in sun and salt water. The main attraction of the island is scuba diving, and always being one to run with the crowds, I jumped on the bandwagon. The first couple days were spent watching corn-hole PADI videos and doing quizzes designed for the thickest of the thick. My classmates were a Canadian couple who both would have gone down in flames on the final exam if they hadn't cheated on me - takes me back to junior high and letting the stoner kids cheat off me in science class. Equally easy test, and equally daft classmates. Anyway...

The depths of the sea are remarkable, and I got see and swim amongst dozens of species of bright, beautiful, florescent fishies, a massive school barracuda swimming in a spiral, some fish related to "Nemo", stingrays, and lots of other scuba divers doing their PADI open water diving courses. Apparently, Koh Tao is the #2 place in the world for issuing PADI open water certification (the certification which permits dives of up to 18 meters, although we were down to 22 meters at some points, shhhhh.)

Unfortunately the visibility was a bit crap because of a storm that had blown through and shaken up the ocean floor a few days earlier. Still, it was a remarkable experience and I look forward to doing more of it.

Coup Anniversary

September 19th is the first anniversary of the coup that sent telecom mogul turned prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra packing to England and looks to have restored the pattern of weak governments interspersed with coups that Thailand has known since becoming a constitutional monarchy in 1932. While Thaksin was away, the tanks were rolled into the streets and a television broadcast plainly announced the coup. The next day, life went on as normal. When there's been 17 coups in the last 60 years, there's not much to do but sigh or roll your eyes and get on with the day.

There's no question that Thaksin was a bit of an asshole. He abused his unprecedented power to benefit his business interests, probably more blatantly and unabashedly than some other nation's leaders do. The fact remains that he had a clear recent mandate to rule the country. In 2005 he became the first prime minister to be re-elected EVER in Thai history. He was immensely popular in Issan, the poor north-eastern part of the country, and other rural areas. He started a number of projects to help alleviate poverty in Thailand, with mixed success.

There was his dirty little "war on drugs" which involved the extra-judicial killings of accused "drug dealers" (who in reality could have been simply political enemies, as there was never any investigation in the killings), hard to excuse. His mishandling of the insurgency in the deep south was unfortunate, particularly the Tak Bai incident in which 85 demonstrators were killed, having suffocated in the back of a truck transporting them to a detention center some ways away.

Was it right to kick the thug out? It depends on how much value you place on democracy. The military government has fumbled through a year, the Thai people have half-heartedly accepted a new, weaker constitution to replace the 1997 one. There are elections slated for the end of the year. In the meantime, Thailand has showed weak economic growth brought on by the political instability. While nearby Vietnam is raging along with China, Thailand is poking along. It seems to me the country would have been better off with a political solution to it's Thaksin problem, but hell, what do I know, I'm just a stupid farang.

Disaster Strikes!

No sooner than I arrive back in Thailand than 88 die in a Phuket plane crash on landing. Yowch. Watch out for those budget airlines.

Speaking of budget airlines, I'll be taking one to Phnom Penh in the next week or so. I've secured a teaching job there through mid-december. The pay is good, the hours not too long, and I'll be able to move forward with my film projects while I'm there.

I have to say though, the heat here is not that easy to get used to. I've come to understand why the Thais and Cambodians are so chilled out - It's too damn hot to be perky all the time. I feel like time moves at about half speed as back home, and that still seems a tad too fast. I'm sure I'll adapt, but I wish it would happen sooner.

And then there's the import/export business I'm hoping to start up. I've met heaps of people on holiday in Thailand who fund their travels buying suits, knock-off goods, etc etc. More on that later.

By the way, the blog really is back this time :)

อะไรวะ?

Once again I find myself in Bangkok, the City of Angels... and internet speeds are smokin'! I can't visit YouTube though, as the Thai government has blocked it since a video poking fun at the monarch was spotted a few weeks ago.

After 4 months in India and Cambodia, Bangkok seems uber-developed and hyper-westernized. On Tuesday I go to Tokyo... my brain will surely explode then.

Today I took care of business: went to the tailor, had my teeth cleaned, and got a foot massage. I'm very comfortable in the city after having lived here for a year and a half, and it's always good to come back for a visit. Good fruit and pretty girls... what more could you ask for?

I mentioned Japan earlier. I'll be working near Shibuya through July, so the "travel" part of the travelogue might be a strech, but I intend to keep the updates coming to give my readers a peak into the life of an ex-pat in Japan. And of course, expect more travels and adventures when summertime hits!