December 2013

Dear all,

here’s a quickie from Thailand. I’ve been here for almost a month, and leave to India tomorrow.

Bangkok, omg! First few days here were mad, and in a good way. I don’t know if it’s the city itself or just the fact that I was in Sri Lanka for too long – the difference is quite stark. I almost forgot what it’s like to live in a vibrant, fast-paced city.

It’s pretty hot here during the day, so although I’m not a big fan of shopping, I quickly found my way to the central shopping malls and spent quite some time there. Not only that there’s an excellent food court, but also interiors of some of them look more like a design concept store or a massive gallery – there are art works all around. There’s also an ice skating ring (of course I went there:), and three shops with grand pianos, did I just find heaven?

Funky white stuff hanging from the ceiling in Siam Center shopping mall.

No words needed here..

It was just me and a few Thai teenagers, I felt like a figure skating champion! I mean.. untill the actual figure skating club began their practice.

Siam Paragon, aka the essence of decadence.

I went up to the north of Thailand for the previous 2-3 weeks, did some volunteering for about 10 days, and then stayed in the towns of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. I’ve been writing pieces of the story every now and then, but then a few days later it would become outdated.. for instance, this is what I wrote like the second day of the volunteering:

Right now, I’m staying at the northernmost part of the country. After a few days in Bangkok, I found myself a sweet spot as a volunteer at a detox retreat center. So I’m spending my time among former drug addicts and alcoholics, but it’s pretty nice here, and people are kind. Although in Thailand, it feels like an English expat place, most guys are from Britain, others from Australia, a few from the States. There are barely any Asians and everyone speaks perfect English. Can’t say it’s not a welcome change :)

My very first job was shoveling duck shit (no kidding), so I’m hoping it can only get better. There’s five hours a day of work, and plenty of time to chill, too. Yoga usually once or twice a day – and that was the main reason to come here too. I gotta get moving before joining the training in India. I haven’t done much yoga in a year, and my bones are rusty :)

I wanted to stay for a few weeks, but due to busy season, I’ll be here for ten days only. But that’s fine. The place loosely affiliated to the Thamkrabok monastery, that does the world famous detox programs…

Not only the place didn’t turn out as sweet as it seemed, the work was pointless, and there was not much free time left either. After a few days, I didn’t like it that much, and after a week, I was counting the days to get away.

The shiny White Temple near Chiang Rai.

It has dragons and Buddha’s statues all around..

and also a rather unusual interior decoration, no kidding. Hi, Neo!

To keep the universe in balance, the White Temple naturally has to have its dark counterpart. Hence, behold the Black Temple on the other side of the town.

This one is full of parts of dead animals..

and it also has the creepiest bathroom ever.

Anyway, these days I’m back in Bangkok, and getting everything ready to go to India. Well not everything, just the very basic things like flight tickets and stuff. And I’m kinda nervous: Everyone both in Thailand and Sri Lanka says, oh, Indians are bad, be careful. Sri Lankans would say it with a serious face as they have had a fair deal of troubles with the Tamils, whereas Thais say the same while laughing, then add a few jokes, and continue in a similarly politically incorrect manner. It’s like Indians are the Russians of south Asia.

I think I sent the last message while still in Sri Lanka, and although it already seems years ago and light years away, let’s go back there for a moment. Before I left, I visited the staff lady’s house, stayed over for a dinner (later she told me it was her birthday – perfect timing, fortunately I brought enough gifts to make one of them a birthday present:) I was happy to learn that she also told the owner to stick it up his behind, and is leaving the job soon. Unfortunately she was made to stay for another three months, which is till January. She cooked my favourite rice & curry combo, so nice! Couple of days later, I was taught some survival Sinhalese for Colombo (“Don’t bother me or I call the police”), and was good to go.

I didn’t have a place to stay in Bangkok till the very last minute, but ended up staying in a pretty nice and chilled hostel, clean and bright, no mould in the bathroom or cockroaches on the floor like many other places. Although I had a gecko in my bed a few days ago, which freaked me out enough. It’s the same place where I’m at the moment.

I bought a smaller luggage yesterday, will repack, and travel light (or at least lighter:) to India. And while in the shop..: So, where are you from? – Europe. – What? – Europe! – Oh of course I know Europe (uncertainly). Hm.. I thought you were Chinese.. – What?? Thankyouverymuch lol. It’s funny when most people have no idea where I might come from. For instance the meditation teacher in Kandy was convinced for most of my stay that I was Australian: So what city do you come from? – Prague. – Is that in Australia? – No, Europe. – But you’re Australian, right? – No.. – Hm.. but your parents are? – No, both Czech. – But I thought.. – Ok, my mothers ancestors came from Italy ages ago. – Oh? That makes sense! (does it?:)

Of course there are also plenty of temples in Bangkok. Here’s Wat Arun, or the Temple of Dawn. It looks quite nice at sunset, too.

It’s possible to go all the way up to the top terrace..

but first one has to climb these vertigo inducing steps.

A massive statue of reclining Buddha in the nearby Wat Pho.

The blissful smile.

Still Wat Pho. The sun sets down pretty early here, but it’s not bad walking around the temples in dark, either.

Ok I’m getting hungry. I’ll probably leave my laptop with some of my stuff here in BKK (and come and pick it up later of course:), so not sure when I get to write something new. Probably not much from India. Also I’ll just wait till I get home, and sort my pictures from there, and post them in retrospect. There’s way too many distractions here :)

I’ll try to get a sim with internet connection in India too, so hopefully won’t end up in complete isolation. Anyway, it’s already afternoon and I only had a breakfast, it’s time for some noodles, fruits and coconut!

Take care xx
Jana