King Power: Bangkok and the beach

One omission from the previous Thailand entry is Thailand's obsession with its king and queen, which makes even the British respect for royalty look small. We previously posted the picture of a store full of yellow shirts that read "We Love the King" on the back. Monday, the day the king was born, is the day to wear your yellow shirt, and many, many Thais do so(Friday is the day for a blue shirt in honor of the Queen). Thai Airline's elite membership status is called "King Power", and the king's picture is everywhere: restaurants, public spaces, you name it.

One of the longest-ruling world leaders (I think for over 60 years), the king is a cross-eyed, slight bespectacled man who appears to split his time between living in extreme opulence and going out in his jeep to get in touch with the "rural people" (although that may have been more in the past, as most of the photos and footage of him doing this look at least 20 years old). We went to 2 movies in Bangkok, and before the movie you have to stand to "honor our king" while some sort of anthem and photo montage of happy Thais and the king plays (unclear if this tune doubles as Thailand's national anthem). I guess you could also say it's a little weird to play the U.S. national anthem before a sporting event, but this seems weirder.

Making fun of the royalty is strictly prohibited: Thailand recently shut down the video website Youtube because of a post that "defamed the king." While the royal infatuation strikes us as plain silly, aside from wearing yellow shirts most Thai people seem, like people in most places we've been, pretty much ignore politics completely. The governing politicians aren't much better than the royalty: last fall's military coup has left the billionaire and corrupt former Prime Minister Thaksin as the only opposition (his TV station, the only non-state media channel, has been banned).

So, back to our journeys. After the overnight train from Chiang Mai, we arrived in Bangkok, and proceeded to spend what felt like at least 45 minutes on a city bus through snarling city traffic. Someone told us that 10 years ago Bangkok was like Ho Chi Minh City, with scooters dwarfing the number of cars, but that as the number of cars increased the traffic has gotten much worse. We finally boarded the bus and after a 3 hour ride, a ferry to the island Ko Samet, and a "saganaw" (public transport pick-up truck with seats in the back) ride we arrived at a beach bungalow on a quiet stretch of sand. The island of Ko Samet is a national park, a designation we couldn't quite figure out other than maybe making the beach access public and not allowing big resorts to build there. We spent 3 full days on the beach, and developed a daily routine of walking into town for a "cheap" lunch (usually noodle soup and coconut ice cream) instead of the "expensive" but good restaurant at our bungalow, where main dishes cost about $2. At our bungalow we ate spicy glass noodle salad, green curry, eggplant with soy sauce, shrimp with ginger, and warm coconut milk with bananas for dessert.

Getting back to Bangkok from the beach also involved a lot of sitting in traffic. From the bus stop we took the new skytrain, an elevated train that seems to help some in alleviating traffic, as well as facilitates funneling people into the numerous shopping malls--with their elevated walkways you can go from mall to mall and avoid the street entirely for stretches. After a hot walk, we found a decent place to stay, although with a tiny room. That night we went to a mall food court very different from those in American malls: here the food is fantastic. We had Tom Yum Kung (spicy shrimp and lemongrass soup) and a vegetarian sampler, then mango sticky rice and a sort of sno-cone consisting of sugared fruits topped with shaved ice and condensed milk. We then went to an even fancier mall (Paragon) with an extremely fancy movie theater and watched "The Good Shepherd."

The next day we ventured out into the intense heat and sun to see the sights: the temple Wat Po with a huge reclining Buddha, and the King's palace (which had a bit of a Disneyland feel) including the Emerald Buddha (although I failed to notice it while we were there). From our hotel we took the skytrain and then a public transport boat along the river, both nicer options than being stuck in traffic. Bangkok is a huge city so it takes awhile to get around. It has a very developed, western look to it with lots of gleaming white skyscrapers. Culturally, the mainstream population seems very image-oriented, with enough electronics and lights in the area around the malls that made us think maybe Bangkok is a little like Tokyo. That evening, after getting a skewer of chicken hearts and livers from a street grill, we tried to go to a Muay Thai (kickboxing) fight, but finding the tickets having doubled in price from our guidebook's listing instead took a walk through nearby Limphini Park. Lots of people were exercising (one of the only times of day the hot weather permits this). We also walked through a night market, which had a stage of incredibly bad singers performing.

The next day we went to still more royal sights, this time the Vinamek teak mansion. We expected a dress code (long pants and covered shoulders) for the palace, but were surprised to find the same requirements here as well (they let you borrow the necessary garments). We also walked through Kho San road, the legendary heart of backpacker culture in Bangkok. It probably has an edgier feel at night, but at the time we weren't too impressed. For our last night in Bangkok it was back to the food court and the movie theater, and the next morning we flew to Malaysia (bypassing the long but also troubled overland route, where violence between the Thai government and Muslim separatists has occurred near the Malaysian border).