July 08 2007: This was my first day, I went to Central Bangkok on my own. Actually, I was supposed to meet two of my friends at Mahidol University who were there for PhD. I was quite excited to meet them in Bangkok even though I didn't meet them that often when we were in Nepal, huh!
I started at 7:00 AM and caught an empty van with the color Chaitya had suggested. I had tried that van earlier and I had experienced the speed of the van with throttle at 140 km/hour. But this time in contrary to my expectation, it was really slow. Stopping at every bus stand and stop, slowing down trying its luck to every group of people waiting for bus, one probably should not expect a speedy travel even though in the low traffic area. Though it looked crazy, but I would suggest never travel in an empty van. I was about to conclude it we reached the toll way and I had a sigh of relief!
It didn't take much time to find my friend who came to pick me up at the monument. But the only thing that confused me was my friend's understanding about sky bridge. He asked me to come up to the skybridge where I was supposed to find him. I looked around and saw more than 4 sky bridges and some of them were pretty much far. I felt quite dejected when I didn't find any clue how to get hold of it. I tried him on his mobile number and asked him again. All he could say was, I should get in the skybridge towards Central Park Hotel. Oh how could I see any Central Park Hotel from such a place! I called him again and this time he said that skybridge was the only one which went round the monument. Then I was pretty much clear that he was talking about the longest skybridge that was below Bangkok Sky Train way. After a few minutes we were exchanging big grin in a nepalese style!
I went to his apartment where he was staying with the other friend. On the way, I saw a beautiful park with a musical fountain. He told me that lots of people would come there in the evening. Some would come for cooling off the heat, some would come with their partner/family for relaxing, while most of them come for physical exercises, also I saw some people jogging and making round to a small pond full of red fishes. Usually the place would be full of people in the evening when, some volunteers taught a yoga to the public along with a background music and a musical water fountain! It seemed to be an ecstatic view to watch. Surely I felt I would like to join the crowd in an evening some time later!
They were quite happy to see me, a friend to talk around anything in Nepalese language ;) We had good lunch together and a good talk. Nepalese food made by nepalese...eaten by Nepalese ...in central Bangkok!!! We had all sort of talk. They were also pretty new to the place and they had not gone far much from the apartment. So I thought probably we should go around and visit some of the attractions in the city. My professor had told me much about the Grand Palace in Bangkok and the Emerald Buddha inside it. It didn't took me much time to persuade them to visit it! Off we went in a taxi @100 baht!
Getting inside the Grand Palace after getting a 250 baht ticket, I felt we did right decision to come in this place. The place was surely a fantastic place for tourist to go around the historical royal palace buildings, the museums and of course the Emerald Buddha...approx. 2 feet high budhha made of green emerald stone.... I would say mesmerizing buddha...so many people watching him, praying, spending some quite time after getting through a soaring heat outside...surely mesmerizing enough. The golden shining painting on the walls of the galleries of some of the monastries were quite eye catching. It was like our Thanka painting. Not ours... Tibetan Thanka paintings that we would normally find at tourist locations in Nepal. Amazingly if you would look at the text in the information brochure and try to match the painting at the walls, you would find a story of Ram and Sita during her abduction by Ravana in Lanka. The brochure had even mentioned that the tale was of Rama of Ayothaya who waged a war to rescue his wife Sita. In fact, I had already visited that place 'Ayuthaya' the ancient city and it was not that difficult for me to recall it. It was really exciting to imagine and link up the strings in the history looking at the painting walls...of course the text written in the information brochure.
But one thing that surely caught me offguard....we came almost to an end of the tour, while keeping good track of the information map given at the gate! But I didn't see any Grand Palace as such. We asked ourselves..."Where is the Grand Palace then?" I tried to trace around the map a number of times but could not locate it! The brochure had a good picture of a building with a big title 'The Grand Palace' but finding the building in the map or in the place was not that easy either. I thought I should better read the information brochure and the text below the title and understand more about it. Well, it didn't take me much time to conclude that the whole place was known as 'The Grand Palace Complex'. It was King Rama I's decision to build the Royal Palace Compound in there, which was not only used to serve as royal residence but also as house for some of the administrative offices (probably like our Singha Durbar where most of the ministries including Prime Minister's office are located inside) and it was given the name as 'Grand Palace'. With that we concluded our half a day tour and got back to the apartment. This time we took metered taxi and only paid 90 baht...huh saved 10 baht?
On the way to return, I said goodbye to my friends and also I invited them to visit my place during any weekend they would prefer. It did not take me much time to find the stand where the vans to AIT used to wait. After confirming, I took a seat and waited. As soon as the van got filled up, we were asked to pay the fare. This time it was 50 baht each. This was 20 baht more than when I came. I thought I got screwed up. I had no choice but to pay him. Off we went and this time surely at the speed of 150 km/hour. On the way, it was heavily raining. I could see the rain flowing up on the windscreen. Shubha had told me about it but I didn't have any chance to watch it. It was true. It was because of the van's speed, the rainwater falling on the windscreen was going up rather than coming down.
Crazily the van came to a halt on the highway that was very near to AIT. I thought it would take us at least to the gate of AIT as normally it used to in the past. Hastily I got off and also I saw a lady in college uniform (in Bangkok almost all colleges were required to wear same uniform: black skirt and white shirt) got off too. Probably she was student in Thammasat University. She was walking quite fast probably to catch up with the classes ...not sure. I called her up...Excuse me...with a smile of course. She looked back and stopped with a surprise! I hurriedly approached her and asked how much she paid to the van. I thought she would understand english but she didn't. I knew 'sip' was called for 10 baht. So, I told her, showing five fingers, I paid 'sip' to the van. And using sign languages, asked her how much money did she pay. Then she answered 50 baht. I got a relief I was not screwed at all. She told me that the van was not of the regular route to AIT and thus charged us more. Oh! goodness! that was the reason. Now what next, we had to talk, it was a bit long walk up to AIT. I tried my best to understand her which level she was in. All I could get out of her was .... she was Commerce and Accounting student in Thammasat University...her english was not that well....She got a call at her mobile by the time we reached AIT gate. But she stopped her mobile and with a big smile said bye bye....c u later..I thought to myself ...oh great ... and I went to AIT gate waving bye to her!
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
I made my birthday Special
June 28, 2007, was supposed to be my special day, the day I was born according to the tithi 'lunar calendar'! The first ever birthday, I was going to spend very differently than my past ones. No puja, no 'Sagun' nothing. I got up a little late and sat for a while trying to gather the dream I had. I was not sure myself if I was expecting any birthday wish early in the morning but definitely I felt like my phone was ringing, my mobile was vibrating ...but it was not.... who would know!..nobody...all the people in my circle had already celebrated my official birthday on the records!
I felt I should do something extraordinary to mark the day. I felt like I should visit a temple and pray for myself. I thought it was not possible to find a temple inside AIT. But Whenever I went back to my room from my office, I had noticed a place having a small shade like of a temple which was close to a corner of the first crossroad on the way to my room. I did not know what it was till the day before when one of my thai colleague, Thapakorn, explained me about it. He ruled it out as temple as there was no monk. He thought probably the place was kept so that the thai people could pray to protect themselves from evil spirits by offering some drinks. He had told me one usually would go there, offer food and pray. So, I did not think anything else, just grabbed a small bottle of milk from fridge and went to that place to offer...I didn't know to whom I was going to offer but I felt I would at least pray for myself.
Amazingle the place was full of offerings and it was surprising to note that there were not puja, not ladoos, not flower and not even red powders. There were several small statues kept inside a small shade and they were statues of men and women wearing beautiful clothes. Lots of mineral water, coke, chocolates, biscuits and so many other foods were kept there as if these were going to be readily consumed anytime. I put my offering inside the shade and I did a quick pray and came back to my room. I was quite happy that I was able to pray in a temple. I did not know what kind of temple was that and also to which god it belonged to but I was walking with a peace in mind and feeling a kind of happiness. I thought to myself I really made my day Special!
I felt I should do something extraordinary to mark the day. I felt like I should visit a temple and pray for myself. I thought it was not possible to find a temple inside AIT. But Whenever I went back to my room from my office, I had noticed a place having a small shade like of a temple which was close to a corner of the first crossroad on the way to my room. I did not know what it was till the day before when one of my thai colleague, Thapakorn, explained me about it. He ruled it out as temple as there was no monk. He thought probably the place was kept so that the thai people could pray to protect themselves from evil spirits by offering some drinks. He had told me one usually would go there, offer food and pray. So, I did not think anything else, just grabbed a small bottle of milk from fridge and went to that place to offer...I didn't know to whom I was going to offer but I felt I would at least pray for myself.
Amazingle the place was full of offerings and it was surprising to note that there were not puja, not ladoos, not flower and not even red powders. There were several small statues kept inside a small shade and they were statues of men and women wearing beautiful clothes. Lots of mineral water, coke, chocolates, biscuits and so many other foods were kept there as if these were going to be readily consumed anytime. I put my offering inside the shade and I did a quick pray and came back to my room. I was quite happy that I was able to pray in a temple. I did not know what kind of temple was that and also to which god it belonged to but I was walking with a peace in mind and feeling a kind of happiness. I thought to myself I really made my day Special!
Monday, June 18, 2007
Yeah! It was a Crazy trip to Ko Si Chang Island near Pattaya
Eventhough this was not my first time in the sea, I was thrilled to be in the beach of Thailand and this was something that I had planned for some time. And travelling in a group of 23 people from differnt countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Britain, Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand and of course Nepal was surely a thrill in itself. On top of that, Chaitya's company and her partnership in all the expenses till the end was quite unique in itself for me! By the way, this was her 7th Crazy trip !!!
We went to a beautiful chinese budhha temple located on a hill in the island. It was a laughing budhha. Then we climbed up high to the top of the hill to find a sacred place with Buddha's foot print on it. The footprint was nicely painted with golden color and looked quite bigger and not humanely in size. To be honest, I was not used to this kind of sacred places which were nicely decorated. Normally we did have sacred places in Nepal but these were either messed up with holy powders during 'Puja' or one had to put some effort to gather his thought to imagine what the object would look like in the past....but it looked natural....probably an untouched beauty! Well, probably we should learn from the way Thai people had been maintaining these sacred places!
One thing about this human nature. May be its crazy trip, perhaps I felt like going crazy for some moment too! It's about a cute child probably in the age of 3/4 years, who was accompanied by her Cambodian father in the group. She was so cute that every lady in the group probably liked to play with her. First a vietnamese, then a Cambodian, and then a phillipino tried to talk to her. Vietnamese tried her language and phillipino tried english language but from her expression I could understand that she did not follow any of these languages. At the end, obviously a cambodian was able to make her comfortable. I thought how different we humans were. Being human we didn't have a common language that could be understood by even a child. If the same child was to be brought up by a Nepalese parent then she would probably never understand the cambodian. huh! I said to myself, "Are we human in real?"-"Are you crazy?"
On the way to the Palace, I learnt from a Cambodian friend that we could easily go to the Cambodia and then to the Vietnam by road from Thailand. She was a cambodian lady just graduated from AIT and was very enthusiastic to tell us about her country and the things we should see in there. I asked her if there was 'Tuk Tuk' in her country. She said 'Yes'. Then I asked her how much would a 'Tuk Tuk' cost? Straight away she said, 250 baht. I repeated my question. She got surprised and reiterated that it was just 250, this time a littel annoyed and put more emphasis on discount that I might get on bargain. I said to her that the cost was probably for a trip. I tried to explain her ... I told her I would pay an amount if I had to buy a shirt in a shop, so similarly how it would cost for a 'Tuk Tuk' there, if I had to buy it like the shirt. Then she understood and stared at me as if I was crazy guy, she never imagined I would ask her about the cost of a 'Tuk Tuk'. Yah I was crazy, after all it was a crazy trip!!!
I could never imagine how a Crab would taste. I had not had its taste till the dinner in a restaurant near the coast in the trip. We ordered fried rice, a big fish with hot lemon soup and Sam Tam (veg salad alongwith crab) and of course a basket full of ice pieces. I wished to try crab meat when I came earlier in Bangkok but could not do it. Alongwith fired rice, first Sam Tam was served with a small black crab. I got a piece of it to try but I could not stop myself from staring on it for awhile....didn't know where to start it from... Chaitya came for my help...somehow I took out little (tiny) meat out of it and tasted it.... a big Woh...and one could see my face, nasty way. I just could not keep it inside my mouth and had to spit it on the floor. It had so hard smell and it tasted like rotten egg. I thought to myself... okay my wish fulfilled, that was the taste of a crab meat huh....I tasted the big fish with hot lemon soup. It had really great taste and much better than what we would normally have in Kathmandu. I kept on eating it so that I could put that bad taste of crab meat away. After awhile another Sam Tam was served. But this time it was red crab but a bigger one. Chaitya asked me to try this once. I said Woh no more no more huh! She said she tried that once before and tasted good. So, I felt I should give this nasty Crab a chance more and then I requested a piece of it as I did before. Hastily, I put the piece in my mouth, afraid I would get the similar taste as before, trying to avoid the bad taste I had earlier. Surprised, this time, it tasted really great. It tasted like a lobster that I had when I was in Roskilde. Well, I thanked to myself that I gave it a try otherwise I would have minded bad taste of the crab meat all in my life....probably it would have been worst for crab lovers huh!!!
We went to a beautiful chinese budhha temple located on a hill in the island. It was a laughing budhha. Then we climbed up high to the top of the hill to find a sacred place with Buddha's foot print on it. The footprint was nicely painted with golden color and looked quite bigger and not humanely in size. To be honest, I was not used to this kind of sacred places which were nicely decorated. Normally we did have sacred places in Nepal but these were either messed up with holy powders during 'Puja' or one had to put some effort to gather his thought to imagine what the object would look like in the past....but it looked natural....probably an untouched beauty! Well, probably we should learn from the way Thai people had been maintaining these sacred places!
One thing about this human nature. May be its crazy trip, perhaps I felt like going crazy for some moment too! It's about a cute child probably in the age of 3/4 years, who was accompanied by her Cambodian father in the group. She was so cute that every lady in the group probably liked to play with her. First a vietnamese, then a Cambodian, and then a phillipino tried to talk to her. Vietnamese tried her language and phillipino tried english language but from her expression I could understand that she did not follow any of these languages. At the end, obviously a cambodian was able to make her comfortable. I thought how different we humans were. Being human we didn't have a common language that could be understood by even a child. If the same child was to be brought up by a Nepalese parent then she would probably never understand the cambodian. huh! I said to myself, "Are we human in real?"-"Are you crazy?"
On the way to the Palace, I learnt from a Cambodian friend that we could easily go to the Cambodia and then to the Vietnam by road from Thailand. She was a cambodian lady just graduated from AIT and was very enthusiastic to tell us about her country and the things we should see in there. I asked her if there was 'Tuk Tuk' in her country. She said 'Yes'. Then I asked her how much would a 'Tuk Tuk' cost? Straight away she said, 250 baht. I repeated my question. She got surprised and reiterated that it was just 250, this time a littel annoyed and put more emphasis on discount that I might get on bargain. I said to her that the cost was probably for a trip. I tried to explain her ... I told her I would pay an amount if I had to buy a shirt in a shop, so similarly how it would cost for a 'Tuk Tuk' there, if I had to buy it like the shirt. Then she understood and stared at me as if I was crazy guy, she never imagined I would ask her about the cost of a 'Tuk Tuk'. Yah I was crazy, after all it was a crazy trip!!!
I could never imagine how a Crab would taste. I had not had its taste till the dinner in a restaurant near the coast in the trip. We ordered fried rice, a big fish with hot lemon soup and Sam Tam (veg salad alongwith crab) and of course a basket full of ice pieces. I wished to try crab meat when I came earlier in Bangkok but could not do it. Alongwith fired rice, first Sam Tam was served with a small black crab. I got a piece of it to try but I could not stop myself from staring on it for awhile....didn't know where to start it from... Chaitya came for my help...somehow I took out little (tiny) meat out of it and tasted it.... a big Woh...and one could see my face, nasty way. I just could not keep it inside my mouth and had to spit it on the floor. It had so hard smell and it tasted like rotten egg. I thought to myself... okay my wish fulfilled, that was the taste of a crab meat huh....I tasted the big fish with hot lemon soup. It had really great taste and much better than what we would normally have in Kathmandu. I kept on eating it so that I could put that bad taste of crab meat away. After awhile another Sam Tam was served. But this time it was red crab but a bigger one. Chaitya asked me to try this once. I said Woh no more no more huh! She said she tried that once before and tasted good. So, I felt I should give this nasty Crab a chance more and then I requested a piece of it as I did before. Hastily, I put the piece in my mouth, afraid I would get the similar taste as before, trying to avoid the bad taste I had earlier. Surprised, this time, it tasted really great. It tasted like a lobster that I had when I was in Roskilde. Well, I thanked to myself that I gave it a try otherwise I would have minded bad taste of the crab meat all in my life....probably it would have been worst for crab lovers huh!!!
Its Crazy people on Crazy Trip! .... Crazy me!
Don't get surprised to see 3 Crazies in the Title. Actually I was told only about Crazy Trip but I came to know about other 2 after I went to the trip myself. Hey! it is 00:44 AM now and I returned from the trip an hour ago...a little bit tired ... but still felt I should write about it no matter how late it would gonna be now.
You must be now Crazy to know about this trip huh! Well, I am told that the trip is crazy because goers are usually informed where they are supposed to go and how they are supposed to go. But the destination is completely new to the organizer themselves. Instead of organizer, I would say volunteers though. Further, there could be twist in the plan, sometimes crazy things happen like finding hard the vehicles to get back to home, getting stuck on the road waiting for others to join, finding the right way to the destination etc. Its crazy trip anyway!
This time (7th time-17 June 2007), the Crazy destination was Ko Si Chang Island before Pattaya beach. A Crazy thing happened before we started our Crazy trip! There were about 33 people who signed up for this trip and only 21 people appeared. So, out of 3 microbuses, one had to be cancelled for which we had to pay 500 Baht as cancellation fee. Crazy though...
I should put another crazy tag to this trip....Crazy drivers. The two drivers had mentioned that the charges for microbus included the cost of gasoline to be spent on the trip! So, we had estimated our individual fare accordingly and was happy with that. But when they came to pick us up at the beach, they said the cost of gasoline was an extra to the reserve fare. So, we had no option but to give them the extra. Thanks to Jonathan who shouldered half of the responsibility! Don't know why... Crazy Jonathan!
I will write about my trip thing later...i should get good sleep otherwise I will get crazy tomorrow! bye!
please do visit again!
You must be now Crazy to know about this trip huh! Well, I am told that the trip is crazy because goers are usually informed where they are supposed to go and how they are supposed to go. But the destination is completely new to the organizer themselves. Instead of organizer, I would say volunteers though. Further, there could be twist in the plan, sometimes crazy things happen like finding hard the vehicles to get back to home, getting stuck on the road waiting for others to join, finding the right way to the destination etc. Its crazy trip anyway!
This time (7th time-17 June 2007), the Crazy destination was Ko Si Chang Island before Pattaya beach. A Crazy thing happened before we started our Crazy trip! There were about 33 people who signed up for this trip and only 21 people appeared. So, out of 3 microbuses, one had to be cancelled for which we had to pay 500 Baht as cancellation fee. Crazy though...
I should put another crazy tag to this trip....Crazy drivers. The two drivers had mentioned that the charges for microbus included the cost of gasoline to be spent on the trip! So, we had estimated our individual fare accordingly and was happy with that. But when they came to pick us up at the beach, they said the cost of gasoline was an extra to the reserve fare. So, we had no option but to give them the extra. Thanks to Jonathan who shouldered half of the responsibility! Don't know why... Crazy Jonathan!
I will write about my trip thing later...i should get good sleep otherwise I will get crazy tomorrow! bye!
please do visit again!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Ayutthaya
Ayutthaya, the ancient city of Thailand. We were 5 of us (Durga, Chaitya, Sareena and Aashish), hired a taxi for a whole day and went to our 'adventure' of Ayuthhaya. Well I had an imagination what an ancient city would look like, from my own distant past visits to Bhaktapur and Lalitpur cities, it proved to be different. Of course, it was an ancient city but the dwellers were probably migrants. The places were so ancient that it had now the remains with brick structure depicting ancient stupas, prangs and temples. Rest of the places seem to be well developed. Better if I would have said the city had got a facelift with people living there. Probably the land development does not seem that old....or it is maintained properly...i should have asked about it....
I had heard and watched the giant buddha statues in Afghansitan destroyed by Taliban regime but I did not know people in ancient times (probably 3-12th century -Khamer age) too had problem with Buddha Statues. Hardly any Buddha statues in the ancient city had its head. It was said that these Buddha Statues were destroyed during war, and in earthquake. I got a relief when I saw a number of Buddha Heads belonging to different centuries in the National Fine Arts and Museum.
One thing that caught my attention whenever I visited WATs (temple of god Buddha).... The pasting of golden flakes to the buddha statues. It was so soft and fragile that it easily pasted on the statue surface and made it shining, giving it a look of gold color. It was really fun. While Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal, the tradition there worshipping Budhha is entirely different than the tradition here, except lighting the incense sticks. My mind striked hard about the tradition that we had in Nepal and I started to question myself....do ever these people know about it...have ever these followers been to the birth place of Budhha...I should have asked them but uff... i should have learnt Thai!
Fortune Teller with a vessel full of wooden sticks each having a number was something that really concluded whole day adventure. It looks like a game where one has to shake the vessel and a single stick fall, get the number it has and find the slip with that number. The first slip I tried, gave a good fortune but I did not like a statement it had and I felt if I should try one more and check if I would get the same number again. But tried 2 times, got different numbers each time I tried and of course different fortune to know about my future! I thought, what if everytime I tried, it would give different numbers....I would have different fortune?...probably the last fortune would be the one whoever tries....no this was not written there but I made it myself! funny though!
I had heard and watched the giant buddha statues in Afghansitan destroyed by Taliban regime but I did not know people in ancient times (probably 3-12th century -Khamer age) too had problem with Buddha Statues. Hardly any Buddha statues in the ancient city had its head. It was said that these Buddha Statues were destroyed during war, and in earthquake. I got a relief when I saw a number of Buddha Heads belonging to different centuries in the National Fine Arts and Museum.
One thing that caught my attention whenever I visited WATs (temple of god Buddha).... The pasting of golden flakes to the buddha statues. It was so soft and fragile that it easily pasted on the statue surface and made it shining, giving it a look of gold color. It was really fun. While Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal, the tradition there worshipping Budhha is entirely different than the tradition here, except lighting the incense sticks. My mind striked hard about the tradition that we had in Nepal and I started to question myself....do ever these people know about it...have ever these followers been to the birth place of Budhha...I should have asked them but uff... i should have learnt Thai!
Fortune Teller with a vessel full of wooden sticks each having a number was something that really concluded whole day adventure. It looks like a game where one has to shake the vessel and a single stick fall, get the number it has and find the slip with that number. The first slip I tried, gave a good fortune but I did not like a statement it had and I felt if I should try one more and check if I would get the same number again. But tried 2 times, got different numbers each time I tried and of course different fortune to know about my future! I thought, what if everytime I tried, it would give different numbers....I would have different fortune?...probably the last fortune would be the one whoever tries....no this was not written there but I made it myself! funny though!
How I came across Blogspot?
It was the e-mail from 'Nishakandu' that striked me and I wondered if I could start writing my philosophy about my life in a Blogger. I came across this word 'blogger' from a 'friend' but I did not know what it was and I did not even try to explore too. But the e-mail from 'Nishakandu' had a blogspot website written at the end. It striked me again and I thought perhaps I should check what it was and then I came across some nicely written scripts, memories and philosophy on her subject of interest. ...it was really nice to know about the life from one's vision..... it striked me hard. I was also thinking about developing a personal website but it was not only time consuming but could be costly too. Wow...Blogspot could be pretty useful though it didn't have the facilities that i thought to have earlier .... and....instantly I started registering it. Took some time to go through it...find a title, understand it and finally I felt now I could present myself ....with a vision....something that I see more than what my eyes see....and finally gave it a name ..... Beyond My Eyes...
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