Day Six: Wat Arun and the Hangover 2

Before I delve into today's business, Laurel recently uploaded this photo taken at the Seafood Market (First day).

Photo Credit: Laurel Gillespie

We had class at eight this morning.  We talked about the shopping malls for a bit and Bill told us that MBK is owned by a Chinese family.  They make the mall Thai friendly to attract Thai customers.  The Chinese population here also patronizes the mall.  Bill then gave us our assignment for tomorrow.  We will each have two shifts of about an hour and half during which we will observe people in Santiphap (Peace) Park just down the street.  This way there will be someone in the park at all times and we will know what is happening in the park throughout the day.  To see where the park is, see my first assignment, the map I made of our street (click on the image to enlarge it).  I used AutoCAD to draw it.

We then discussed Thaksin Shinawatra, a former, exiled prime minister of Thailand who is trying to regain power by having his sister run for prime minister.  Elections are the first week in July and stories about it are all over the newspapers.  Our assignment for today was to go to a temple.  There were five temples we could choose from, and Judy and I both chose Wat Arun, a temple on the other side of the Chao Phraya River.  During our class, Bill suggested that we get very small notebooks in which to take field notes.  This is so we do not draw attention to ourselves and risk people looking at us instead of doing whatever activity we are trying to observe.  I picked up a small notebook on the way to get lunch.  We found a place on a main road that was open to the street (as most restaurant are).  There are 12 items on the menu and they are all available with chicken, pork, shrimp, or crab.  Each dish costs 40 baht ($1.33 US).  To get a drink, you walk over to a cooler and grab a bottle.  When you are done eating, the waitress, who is also one of the cooks, tells you how much you owe and you hand her your money and leave.  I got chicken fried rice.

We took a taxi to the river.  From across the river, Wat Arun rises majestically above the city. We took this small ferry across the river for 3 baht (9 cents).

This planter was in park next to the ferry dock.

Outside the tower, there is an area of buildings including two temples and the residences of the monks.  We walked around this area for a while.  Some formations of rock have pieces of pottery set in mortar on them.

These trees were all over the temple area.  Here, landscapers trim them into perfect hemispheres.

In the area outside the temples, beautifully carved sculptures are everywhere.  Their detail is intricate and stunning.  Every part of each building is adorned with some kind of decoration.

Judy and I went into both of the temples.  In one of them there was a monk sitting on the side who sprinkled some (holy?) water on a pair of Thai women with a broom-like object.  Judy was raised Buddhist and knew how to approach and kneel before the golden Buddha statue reverently inside.  I tried to follow her lead.  The inside was as beautifully adorned as the outside.  Because there were Thais praying in both temples, I opted not to photograph them.


Wat Arun was constructed in the early 19th century and stands 76.2m (250 ft) tall (Source: http://www.watarun.org/index_en.html).  It has very steep steps that visitors can climb that go about 2/3 of the way to the top.  From the top you can see the whole temple complex and a great view of the city.

At the top their was a young monk-in-training and a large tarp with many prayers written on it.

This the license of the cab driver who took us back to VP Tower.

That's all I have to say about that.  I went for a swim when I got home, and then we ate at Madam Ong's, the restaurant on the bottom floor of VP Tower.  I ordered vegetable rolls with pork sausage and shrimp and a tasty sauce.

We then went to see the Hangover 2.  The seats in the Theater are assigned.  It was in English with Thai subtitles.  After a while you do not even notice them.  There were more trailers than there are in America, over 30 minutes worth.  Some of them were all in Thai and looked very confusing.  Right before the movie began, everyone in the theater stood up while a song the king wrote played along with a slideshow of pictures of the king.  I liked the movie, but thought it was too much like the first one.  The Thais, as expected, were dead silent throughout the movie except for normal laughter.  I think that the band that played at the end was a famous Thai band because the girls giggled when they came on.

Day Five: Siam Discovery and MBK Shopping Malls

Today was our first day of class.  We met at eight on the patio next to the pool.  Bill went over a few rules we should follow while we are here so that we do not offend any Thais.  These included being quiet in restaurants and being reverent with anything that has the king's image on it.  He then told us how our courses will be set up.  For the first two or three weeks, he will send us out on particular assignments to observe certain things Thais do.  The last two or three weeks will be open to what we decide to study.  We are to pick a topic and do whatever research is necessary to learn about it.  We are also to read two English language Bangkok newspapers everyday, which we can read online.

We also received our next assignment.  This was for the group to split up into pairs and each go to two shopping malls.  Half of us went to one of three Siam malls in the morning and MBK in the afternoon, and the other half went to MBK in the morning and a Siam mall in the afternoon.  The three Siam malls are right next to each other and across the street from MBK.  I was paired up with a student named Rachael and we went to Siam Discovery in the morning and MBK in the afternoon.

We took a tuktuk to the mall area and were stunned by the size of the malls.  There is not enough room for them to sprawl out as they do in suburban areas, so they towered 7 or 8 stories in the air.  The BTS stops right down the street and the whole area is very modern.

This mall was geared towards farang (a Thai word for foreigners with a slightly negative connotation).  It looks much like an American mall.  Only two or three stores' names were written in Thai and all the rest were in English.  The displays were spread out and the stores were expensive even by American standards.  Stores included Armani Exchange, Lacoste, and Calvin Klein.  Most of the books in the bookstore were in English and many of the restaurants were American chains.  This mall was almost empty the whole time we were there.

The exception to the westernized stores was this one toy store that was back in a hallway.  It had small crowded aisles and was packed with toys geared toward Thais.

We walked around this mall until about one.  For some reason, there were about 8 or 9 Japanese restaurants in it.  I cannot fathom how they can all stay in business.

We then crossed the street and found a Chinese-Thai restaurant in MBK as soon as we entered.  I ordered Sea Bass with pepper sauce and it was quite good.

Photo Credit: Rachael Conway

This mall was noticeable immediately at a mall created for Thais.  The hallways were more narrow and stores did not have the dramatic western entrances of the stores in the Siam mall.  Also, every floor of MBK had normal retail stores, but also had vendor stands similar to the ones I saw in the Chatuchak market.  These vendor stands took up almost the whole area of the upper levels of the mall.  This mall was very crowded the whole time we were there and the people there were almost all Thai.  This is the main atrium of the mall.

One part of the mall looked just like an Ikea store.  It was a large home furnishing section that had wide walkways and dramatic lighting.

While wandering through the mall, I found a crepe stand.  I got a crepe with bananas, whipped creme, and chocolate sauce.

Photo Credit: Rachael Conway

I have heard from several people how difficult it is to translate Thai into English.  The main issue is that Thai is an entirely phonetic language and English is not.  This store name spelling is an example of the translation difficulty.

Photo Credit: Rachael Conway

Two other interesting spectacles at the mall were pay toilets and a stretch tuktuk.

Photo Credit: Rachael Conway

Photo Credit: Rachael Conway

After the mall, we went back to the apartment and I swam in the pool and rested.  For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Raintree.  It is a restaurant that has been in the neighborhood for a long time.  I ordered jungle curry pork.