leaving thailand

so in exactly 12 hours, i leave bangkok. six weeks have already passed. i had a great time hanging out with gong gong and family and friends, discovering thailand, and visiting vietnam. i ate pad thai for the past 2 days and had a mango blizzard at DQ today. i am bringing back lots of different thai food/candy that i hope will pass through customs and won't get crushed in my overstuffed suitcase. i still haven't finished going through emails (1,313 in my inbox! i'll never win), i only read 2 books (actually, that's a lie. i still haven't finished the other one. but i did read the thailand and vietnam guidebooks, and several news mags from 2007/08 - i was just catching up), there were days i sadly did not eat mango, and i don't have a job. but it's time to move on to the next step in my life, whatever that may be.

i'll post later with details and photos about vietnam and thailand now that i'll have time and my laptop. i wasn't online as much as i thought i would be (a good thing) and my internet connection was slow and in thai. i didn't really miss the internet, just a wifi connection. and i definitely did NOT miss my blackberry.

my flight leaves at 11:55am on Friday, may 1st from bangkok. a 3 hour layover in taipei, then leaving at 7:50pm on friday, may 1st and land in San Francisco at 3:55pm on friday, may 1st. i do love time traveling. and i will be there just in time for my pau pau's (grandmother) 90th birthday.

saw wat dee ka, thailand. kap kuhn ka!

Vietnam....kind of like Bolivia

but much hotter and fewer motorbikes. And Vietnamese is harder than Spanish. I am in Hoi An now, on the central coast of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City was sweltering and incredibly crowded. There are ~9 million people in HCM and ~6million motorbikes!* Crossing the street is tricky but I'm convinced motorbikes will just go around me and I only need to look out for cars. At least, I know which direction to look in as they drive on the 'right' side of the road, unlike Thailand.

Yesterday, I went to the Mekong Delta towns of My Tho and Ben Tre, about 2 hours from HCM. Boat trip to 2 islands, lunch, rowing down a canal, horse carriage ride, bee hive visit, walking through orchards, visiting a coconut candy 'factory, and watching rice paper being made was a bargain for ten bucks! I didn't even get bit once!

I've already eaten pho three times, had ben xeo (which was delish), and had young coconut juice straight from the coconut twice.

Hoi An is apparently known for tailor-made clothing and has the best food in Vietnam. We'll find out manana!


*According to the guide.

Now in Vietnam

Landed in Vietnam this morning at 9:15am. The airport was empty, as was the plane. A little weird. It's only 1pm and I've already had some pho and young coconut juice, gone to the biggest market, picked up some mango and rambutan, and checked into my hotel. My sis-in-law-to-be is from Vietnam and her aunt and uncle are taking good care of me. I'm so lucky! Tomorrow is the Mekong Delta. Tuesday evening, I'll fly to Danang and then stay in Hoi An for a couple of days, then to Hanoi and Halong Bay for the rest of the trip!

Never Sit Underneath a Coconut Tree

view from Gong Gong's house at dusk of the tung na (rice paddy) and coconut trees by the rice farmer's shack










My grandfather is 90 years old (91 in Chinese years) and has seen a lot in his day. He is a newspaper man and has been the editor of several Chinese newspapers since the age of 26, appointed by the Chinese government. With an editorial to write every day, he has always been full of advice and has very strong opinions. Even now.

Every morning, he wakes up and sits on the porch overlooking the tung na. His house is about 30 km from Bangkok and can be considered suburban and is pretty peaceful. While we were sitting watching the rice farmer make his way back to his shack and listening to the birds singing, he turned to me and said, "Never sit underneath a coconut tree. A coconut can fall and hit you on the head. Banana and mango trees are ok though. We're sitting by both right now. You should eat the mangos and bananas from my trees." It isn't the same as when he told me to go to law school but at 90, I'm glad he's still looking out for me.

The tung na, however, can be very noisy. At night, the frog and insects raise a racket. In the morning, the farmer shoots blanks to scare off the birds - cranes, etc. Or he will start plowing at about 7am for the entire morning. No need for the water buffalo anymore. Sad, i'm sure they are much quieter. not that i want my sabbatical to interfere with the farmer's means of income and the production of food. i'd just like to sleep in.


a water buffalo, much like the one that saved my grandfather when he was a little boy after he fell into a rice paddy. this one is very old, each ridge in the horns represents one year. this one was saved from the slaughterhouse. proceeds from the park go towards buying buffalo from the slaughterhouse. one can cost about 5,000 baht (35 baht = $1).

pic taken at the Buffalo Preservation Park in Su Panburi, 2 hours north of Bangkok

Thailand is in the news

In case you haven't heard, protesters crashed the ASEAN summit going on in Pattaya, a beach town south of Bangkok (haven't gone there yet; very touristy and beachy place). Asian leaders evacuated via helicopter and ferry, protesters were arrested, chaos ensued. Read http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/world/asia/12thai.html for a brief update.

I'm not going to dissect the issues here. But basically, red shirts support the ousted former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and the yellow shirts support the monarchy and current government. The yellow shirts shut down the airports in December. The red shirts have vowed to protest every day until the current prime minister resigns. (It is a crime to criticize or insult the king) Protests have been going on every day since last week causing traffic jams beyond what is normal Bangkok traffic. Furthermore, we are in the midst of Songkhran, Thai New Year. Monday is an official holiday and most Thais take the whole week off to go home to spend time with their families.

Complicated situation that I'm trying to get a handle on. But, it seems like I can't get away from protests and demonstrations that shut down the government whenever I travel abroad (see e.g., Bolivia). Hopefully the situation won't deteriorate that much. Bang Bua Thong is very peaceful by comparison and I'll be sure to avoid wearing a yellow or red shirt for the rest of my time here.

photo of the Rama IIX Bridge, the newest bridge in Bangkok honoring the previous King. taken from a riverboat cruise on the Chao Phraya River.

some pics

a delicious thai dessert - Lod Chong Nam Ka Ti
made from rice flower and mung bean and eaten with coconut milk over ice













a tuk-tuk

















guarding the gates of the royal temple

still in bangkok!

I'm still here! had trouble with the blog. internet is slow and everything is in thai. but i think i figured things out now.

havent had much time what with sightseeing and visiting family and the rain storms, but i promise to blog more. highlights include: visiting the royal temple, going to the ancient capital, being deathly allergic to the sea and anything found in it, taking a ferry to Chinatown, visiting temples by longtail boat, and visiting a lychee farm! did you know there are TWELVE kinds of lychee?

im still working on my thai but with my grandfather and MaryAnn speaking to me in TeoChew (their Chinese dialect) and Mandarin, it's kind of slow. i also get all the words confused. however, i am able to bargain (somewhat) in Thai and can give directions (sort of).

Thai New Year (Songrat) is this week. they celebrate by throwing water on each other. and shooting water guns at each other.

i just bought my ticket to Vietnam for April 19th. will be there for 10 days and then back to Bangkok for a couple of days before i head home. i can't believe i only have 24 days left!