'MRCA

We went to try an see an elephant show...or crocodile show (we'll never know), but, when we tried to get in, the guard and my uncle started arguing and then the guard asked me (in very fast and angry Thai, mind you), "phuut phaa saa Thai dai mai (can you speak Thai)?" I was taken by surprise and had no time to slowly think of what to say so I didn't say anything. We returned our tickets and it was later explained that non-Thais had to pay more for the show so we were like, "hell naw," and we went to a wax museum instead. That's how American I was on Independence Day. Anyways:

July 3rd in pictures:

Street dog (posted on behalf of Natalie B.)

Spokesperson of 7/11

Gas station food at the 7/11

Best yogurt EVAR.

I'm getting back into the effervescent lifestyle.

Vietnamese food

Vietnamese taco-like thing

Vietnamese sawsage

Vietnamese meat patties of some sort

Vietnamese dessert (my family calls it black worms)

Mama's school

Another one of Mama's school

Thai massage station

This thing was more comfortable than a mumu.

Uncle

They make us wash our feet first.

Happy ending.

Zelda, no?

Fried chicken at Tlad (the market)

meat on a stick at Tlad (the market)

Dinner

Dinner friends

JULY 4 IN PICTURES:

Restaurant

Lady makin' noodles

People eatin' noodles

Me eatin' noodles.

Coconut Ice Cream served with acorn squash,

corn, and sweet sticky rice—GENIUS.

Wax Monk

Are they wax?

All the kings

horses.

Musician

The Bob Dylan of Thailand

Children and their games

Men and their games (?)

Bald head rubbing or something (???) 

The Hans Christian Andersen of Thailand

Low ceilings at the market

Uncle pointing out that this hanging durian is not real 

(like I didn't know)

Real Durian

Sweaty durian

Rambutan

Mang Kuut (mangosteen)

Longan (I think)—my favorite

Inside the mangosteen

outside the rambutan

ขอขอบคุณคุณ ←kthanksbahye.

Insight because outsight is not a word.

The driving here is obviously crazy, but there is some logic to it. If you have ever wondered what happens if just a whole bunch of cars went at a red light and if the cars who have the right of way at the green light stop, then Thailand is your answer. It's like the drivers here make up their own stoplights everywhere. Say a car is trying to turn right—they will sneaky sneak into the road until finally everyone stops and that car can finally go. I have observed that everyone drives however they want to. Motorcycles stop for nothing, but nobody goes super fast so everyone is aware and when these stoplights are made up in the middle of the road, they will stop with no road rage or grudges, and motorcycles will always go around and into anything they want. This is just the way of the road and everyone seems peaceful about it.

My collarbone has been killing me so it was a miracle that my uncle and I happened to get massages while auntie was in an appointment. Take that, America. You deprived me of my Thai massage while I was there so I spent my life savings (only half true) to go to Thailand and get one. It basically goes like this, "Does it hurt when I push on this part of your body? OK, APPLY BODY WEIGHT x 10542578254 TO IT," and then a minute afterwards it FEELS SO GOOD. It's kinda weird that they just go wherever with you when they do it. You're fully clothed, but they be pushin' on that pubic bone and all up in your arm pits. Good thing I groomed—in more places than one. I'll leave it at that, except that I have been able to recognize a few more Thai characters in all the signs and words around: ก and ด which, by the way, the Thai alphabet is very peculiar. 

The English alphabet's letter are a collection of symbols that have certain phonetics and rules about them, but that's all that they mean. They are a pile of tools in a toolbox that you gather into compositions that have definition  and meaning. The characters in the Thai alphabet already have a definition on their own. ก means chicken, and ด means child, but as a component in a Thai word, it changes its meaning completely. I'll leave it at that.

Pictures later, ขอขอบคุณคุณ ←kthanksbahye.

H-E-doublehockeysticks

JULY 1ST, 2013:

So many hell yeahs today.
The first two tranny spottings—
hell yeah.
Bright pink taxies—
hell yeah.
Ice served with water in a foreign country—
hell yeah.
Eating shrimp for the fourth time,
liking it for the first time—
hell yeah.
Passing by a cigarette smoking monk—
hell yeah.
Seeing the Grand Palace
in all of it's gilt splendor—
hell yeah.
Milk ice cream,
it's a thing—
hell yeah.
Blowin' off the London Eye,
riding the Asiatique Sky—
hell yeah.
Being able to notice this character from the alphabet in Thai words
ง—
hell yeah.

Tranny—99% sure.

pink transportation

string mushroom salad

tom yum kung—goooood shrimples.

morning glory

garlic squid

SQUID

Grand Palace

Grand Palace

strugs.

happy strugs.

Me posing with the temple

Milk Ice Cream

DINDIN

Sam Tom Thai

Sam Tom Pork

Pork

DESSERT

Tranny #2—75% sure. Also, 710.48 is not a bad price to pay for dinner here. Still trying to adapt to that.

F**** the London Eye. This be the Asiatique Sky.

Fish tank foot massage. Ew.

ขอขอบคุณคุณ ←kthanksbahye.

Anew—WARNING: MOVIE SPOILER IN THIS POST.

I don't know what it is about me and planes but it's been a year and I never concluded blogging about my summer in NYC so let's start fresh. Just to provide some background, I'm spending 3 weeks in Thailand starting likerightnow. The plan is—Week 1: Bangkok at my uncle and aunt's house, Week 2: Chang Mai in the North plus a few other provinces, Week 3: the beach towns in the South. 

TRAVEL TIME

The last America meal.

persspert

Just pointing out that this guy stole 2/3 of my name.

เพิ่มคำอธิบายภาพ ←I don't know.

เพิ่มคำอธิบายภาพ ←Still don't know.

So we spent this whole damn day traveling. Really, I loved it. We flew 2 hours from Phoenix, AZ to San Francisco California, and another 12 hours from SF to Beijing, China. There was another hour spent sitting inside a dormant plane because of plane traffic, although plane TV played surveillance of a completely empty plane lot surrounding us. Once finally up in the air though, it was another 5 hours and we arrived in Bangkok's Suvaranabhumi Airport. As I was saying, I don't know what it is about me and planes, but in that collective 20 hours of plane time, I stood up not once. 

The good hunk of flight onward to Beijing was spent sleeping, reading, and eating chicken and rice plane food and a second meal of  chicken noodles that tasted like feet (I didn't finish it). I did end up watching some movies on the screen with no earphones. The first movie was a Daniel Craig 007 film (there was no sound, but I'm almost positive that Judy Dench dies. JUDY-FREAKING-DENCH DIES. At least I'm pretty sure.) What was more interesting was the second film. I had no clue what it was, but it was a black and white film, and this dude with a mess of hair rescued a baby from this Chinese Dragon-looking monster fish by teeter-tottering off various docks. I dozed off, and the next thing I know, there's this lady in the scene with powers that manipulate floating rings and she's fighting this Chinese maiden that turns into a pig wearing a dress. She's holding the pig down, and the guy with the mess of hair has to kiss the pig in order for it to disappear (or die, I wasn't sure). It was shot in black-and-white, but those scenes were definitely computerized so I'm think it was a more current movie which I will probably never get its name. I suppose there's beauty in that suffering.

The feet meal.

IN THAILAND

My computer switched to Thai characters. While I am using Google Chrome (props to Google Chrome), I still don't know the possibilities of fonts I could use to change this body of text because that was the one thing that did not translate to English.

Sight: The Suvarnabhumi Airport glows blue at night. Here, the driver's side is on the left, and we drive on the left side of the road. Small pick-up trucks carry loads at least 10 feet (or should I start thinking in meters?) tall. There are dogs in the street, and not the small ones that get mistaken for hefty rats, but medium-large sized dogs that my mom is convinced are all rabid monsters. Even if that's half true, I still want to scoop them all up  and take them home with me.

♥

Smell: Thailand smells like my grandma and then sometimes like my Dad's breath when he speaks to me closely.

Sound: They may have been listening to an English radio station because they were picking up an American from the airport, but the American music here in Thailand is pretty current blaring Demi Lovato's latest single as well as Bruno Mars'—who I always call Frankie J in my head before correcting myself—latest single, and some Coldplay. And then you have a lot of '90s music that is popular as well. Boyband 98°, I feel like Dreamstreet played; some Brian McKnight was playing. My uncle's house is on the outskirts of Bangkok, and outside of the wonderfully air-conditioned truck, the town is quiet. Right now, it is around 4AM so the dogs are sleeping, but they WERE barking just half an hour ago.

Touch: It is humid here. I'm not going to get metaphorical and mention that when we walked out of the airport, I was swimming through molasses in a boiling pot or something like that, but it is HUMID. and HOT. So here's to the next 3 weeks of sweat soaked Marie, but it's rainy season so hopefully the rain masks all the sweat I'm sweating. ขอขอบคุณคุณ ←kthanksbahye.