Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Weldon Girl-Scouts & Parents

Spread the word! Kapstone leads the way to Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary Celebration at Halifax Community College.
See Flyer Below for details.






































Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Chiang Mai Chapter

Here's something about lo-cost airlines. There's usually something that comes along with lo-cost: lo-service. At the beginning of the trip, we took the kids and grandchildren to Phuket for a weekend. Seeing as it was 6 tickets, I sought out the best deal we could get, which I found with an airline called Air Asia that operates mainly in and around Southeast Asia. The deals appeared good, and in fact they actually were very good. Just it's a funny thing about the way they advertise their prices. Oh, you want to go from Bangkok to Phuket? OK that's (for example) $99. Oh you also want a seat? That's another (for example) $23. What? And baggage too? That's $15 per piece up to 15 kg. More than15 kg? that's $30 per piece. And so it goes… Well anyway, they still worked out to be the best deal, when best = cheapest in this case. Now here's the thing… in order to keep their costs down (you'd think lo-cost meant lo-cost to you the buyer, but it actually means lo-cost to them, the service providing airline) they don't park their aircraft at the gate but somewhere out in the great blue yonder. It also means that they run very tight (published) schedules, which in turn results in their planes arriving late and therefore also departing late. Now on the way back from Phuket, out flight was delayed over 60 minutes.

So what's this got to do with today? Today we flew to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Same airline as to Phuket, because it was the best ( = cheapest) deal. The flight was late (duh!) departing, but to their credit I must say the aircraft is comfortable (leather seats!) and the flight attendants do their best to provide service (selling food and drinks and chatchkes). The flight was an hour and a quarter and here we were landing in Chiang Mai, a sleepy city of some 250,000 residents that has a big tourist industry relying on the variety of elephant farms (we didn't go), tribal villages (we saw some), jungle treks (more about that later) and a reasonable amount of Thai/Siamese history and culture (unlike Bangkok or Phuket).
Mountains, lakes and jungles
Our hotel (Holiday Inn Chiang Mai – HIGHLY recommended) sent a car and driver for us and off we went. The hotel was absolutely splendid! Great lobby, great room, HUGE bathroom, a wonderful concierge who catered to all our needs, and all-round great hotel. Also, it was located a small distance away from the main drag and thus was quiet at night (unlike our experience in Phuket). Once we were checked in and had a bite to eat, we set out to walk into town to find Chabad which is located on the main drag (Changkland Rd). Turns out we walked right by them and further into town, stopping here and there and eventually at Starbucks for a little refreshment. Then we started making our way back down the street when I saw a Chabad-looking dude pedaling in the opposite direction of the other side of the street. I called out to him, he saw me and stopped and gave us directions (which is how we knew we had walked right by them). On the way back we noticed the sign which we hadn't seen before because it was hidden by the awnings under which we were walking.

Strange thing about Chiang Mai: lots of dogs on the street, and they're all sleeping. We saw precious few dogs walking about but plenty sleeping hounds. And we saw a holy cow – calf actually – tethered outside someone's store. Holy Cow!

Chiang Mai reminded me very much of Pune in India. Lots of lo-rise buildings, many palm and banana trees, lush tropical vegetation, not too much traffic (turned out to be incorrect because Thursday afternoon's traffic was very heavy), and we were in the tallest building in the city on the 20th floor.
My favorite night market in the East
In the evening we availed ourselves of the hotel's shuttle and went to see the night market, which is one of Chiang Mai's must-see items. We had noticed when walking about the city earlier that there were many closed-up stalls lining Changklang Road. When we came back in the evening we realized what they were all about. This main road is lined with stalls on the sidewalks, on each side of the sidewalk on each side of the street, so basically there is a very narrow path along the sidewalk between two lines of stalls along which the crowds make their slow progress through the market. It is (a) very colorful; (b) full of interesting things (over and above the usual T-shirts, junk jewelry, chatchkes and what-nots, etc.) and interesting handiwork. We arrived to the market at 8 p.m. when it opened and after about half an hour we found that the street part opened into a huge lot filled with stalls, so we footed into there to investigate the wares. Great stuff! What we also noticed is that there was blaring music not to be found anywhere. Some of the pubs and restaurants lining the outer rim of the market had singers or musicians, and the environment was really enjoyable. It was a fun place to be. Also, there was almost zero humidity and the night was relatively cool. Compared to Bangkok it was downright frigid - but then again, compared to Bangkok most places are downright frigid.

What was especially nice to see were craftsmen and women working their wonders with their hands as they sat behind their stalls. There was one guy who was making necklaces / belts / scarf-type things out of ties and large wooden beads, covering one bead and threading the tie through the next. He created some really beautiful stuff. Also, the combination of lights, music, color, and the unbelievable collection of ethnicities in the area was absolutely fascinating. We stayed there till about 10.30 p.m. and then walked over to Chabad for a late supper, and then a tuk-tuk back to our hotel.
Royal Flora – a flower exhibition second to none
One of the main reasons we came to Chiang Mai is the International Flower Show "Royal Flora" that is on here at this time of the year. The area is on one of the mountain slopes just outside Chiang Mai. The entrance that welcomes you has beautiful sculpted hedges and manicured lawns, ponds and hillocks. Inside the exhibition grounds there is also a lake and a royal temple which are all beautiful.
Beautifully landscaped, with Royal temple, lake, park and amazing flora

Our deal at the hotel also included complimentary transportation to and from the show, so we hopped into our private van and were driven to the show. We bought tickets and made our way in and started the winding route through the show grounds. About ten years ago my wife and elder daughter and I went to the International Flower Show in Amsterdam when we were on our way to Vancouver, which was absolutely spectacular. This show was pretty much the same. We love gardens and flowers and plants of all sorts, but nothing prepared us for the first few pavilions which were beautiful gardens filled with… vegetables! Cabbages (green, white and red) and kohlrabi and broccoli and spinach and cucumbers (the size of tennis rackets) and pumpkins and squashes, absolutely unbelievable what can be done with vegetables. Also, there was a close-up small rice paddy and my wife was able to see for the very first time how rice grows. She got SO excited!

From the various creative vegetable gardens we proceeded to the orchid exhibition. Now, once again, I must talk about the orchids here in Thailand. Orchids are, in my humble opinion, among the most beautiful flowers on earth. I always remember as a child and as a young adult that orchids were gazed upon with awe. Even now, in Israel, orchids are very rare and immensely expensive. In Thailand, on the other hand, orchids are like the dust of the earth... 10-15 baht each. They cost almost nothing, gornisht. And they can be found everywhere. They make anything look spectacular, and so you often see them tied onto trees (even next to the pool downstairs) in private and public gardens and sidewalks. Most often, the orchids you see are the national flower orchid, the purple one with the white and yellow trim. It's gorgeous, and also serves as the colors of the national airline, and the Siam Commercial Bank, among other companies. Now, imagine walking into an exhibition area that has literally THOUSANDS of orchids of HUNDREDS of different types. O!M!G! And each one is more beautiful than the one before. And they come in a multiplicity of shapes, sizes, colors, forms and everything in between. I tell you, this is seriously breathtaking stuff! It's hard to fathom so much beauty. Each one is spectacular and if we would take the time to actually look at each kind, we'd need literally hours, if not days, to work our way just through this exhibition hall.

We continued through some of the national pavilions (South Africa was disappointing, Israel wasn't there) till we came to the Ferris wheel, and decided to go for two loops to see the show from above. Wheee!

Anyway, we continued our stroll through the show for another few hours and then went back to the entrance to meet our driver, who took us back to the hotel. After spending about 6 hours on our feet, we needed to rest up a while which we did at the hotel, before heading back downstairs to take the ride to the shopping mall. There's a shopping mall near the airport that provides free shuttle service from hotels in town to the mall and back. So off we went again…
How to find Chabad? Find a Chabadnik!
At this stage this was not really a true shopping outing. We were pretty pooped and didn't really have what to shop for. But my wife wanted to check out some knitting stores which we did, but didn't find what she was looking for. We were once reminded of what our daughter-in-law had said before we went to Chatuchak Market – if you find it, buy it. My wife had found at the market this cute embroidery kit which had a unique needle with it that all you to do was push and pull and the needle did the rest. We only bought one kit and had been searching for another needle. Anyway, we came up dry. As we strolled through the mall we noticed an Apple store so we went in and a very nice young sales woman explained the iPad to us in detail and I decided that this was the time. So while she carried on explaining to my wife how the gizmo works, I went and bought one. Yay!  Just like our erstwhile ancestors in Egypt, "Yatzati Bi'rechush Gadol!" Later it was a stop at Starbucks for a shot of caffeine, and then back into the mall until it was time to go home with the last shuttle. Of course, seventeen hundred other people had the same idea and when we got to the shuttle there was only sitting room for one person, so my wife sat on my lap and off we went.

Now what exactly is this shuttle you may ask, that it takes people sitting on one another. Well, in fact the shuttle is a loosely used term to describe the vehicle. It's basically a pickup (bakkie, in South African) with benches on each side and a roof over the top, and they cram as many as possible into it. Sometimes, we also saw people standing on the step at the back of the pickup taxi shuttle thingy. Anyway, off we went and my wife starts to chat with all the folks from Sri Lanka, China, Indonesia and other places. Lordy, lordy – my wife, bless her, talks to everyone. Mrs. Friendly she is. Of course they have no idea what she's saying because they cannot understand her accent, and when they do understand and reply, she can't understand theirs. What a riot! Anyway, we went back to the hotel in time to get the shuttle to the night market which is near Chabad where we went for supper and then by tuk-tuk back to the hotel because we were being picked up the next morning at the crack of dawn to go zip-lining through the rain forest with the folks from "Flight of the Gibbon." Rush, rush, rush…

Another one of the main reasons we came to Chiang Mai was to spend half a day in the jungles of Thailand on the Flight of the Gibbon (hereafter FotG), a 4 hour zip-line jungle adventure. And what a thrill it was!

I forgot to mention earlier that our room, being on the 20th floor, was only accessible by elevator. The hotel had 5 elevators, one of which was a glass elevator, which we tried to use as often as possible. It had a great view and we loved using it. So here's the view from the glass elevator:

Our pickup was at 6:45 in the morning and when we came down they were already waiting. There were 2 women from Germany and a young couple from Oz in our group, and they were already in the van with the driver and the host from FotG. We immediately left for the hour's drive up to the jungles. Now our driver was seriously interested in speed and not at all interested in the potholes in the road. As a matter of fact I believe with perfect faith that his only purpose in life was to hit the potholes at the fastest speed possible and to ensure that he missed none. Man, I was seriously nauseous by the time we arrived to Mae Kompong village. I don't know what this godforsaken village did for a living before FotG arrived here, but I am sure that now they all lead flourishing lives with the multitude of travelers who come here every day for this experience of a lifetime. 

Once we had completed the run of all the potholes in and around the city and most of the potholes outside the city, we started the climb into the mountains on narrow winding roads, all with the required amount of compulsory potholes for our driver to hit and jiggle us around. And there was none of this slowing down stuff before a sharp hairpin bend. So while we're jiggling up and down from the potholes, we are also being thrown left and right and left and right and right and left and all over the place as we zoom up down and all around. I tell you, it was all I could do to keep my breakfast down.
Getting fitted and harnessed
So, we arrive at the place and then we get strapped into harnesses, get bandanas and helmets, cables with wheels on and other cables with safety clips on, and then we are told to get back in the van (oh no!) which will take us to the beginning of the 5km zip-line course. So old driver guy did his thing again, but this time he was forced to torture us for a brief 5 minutes only.

There our guide started to hike into the jungle showing us where the course starts. Not too bad and not too high. We climbed up the mountainside and crossed over onto the platform on the tree.

Now, to give you an idea of these trees, they are banyan trees, and they are seriously tall trees. I mean hundreds of feet high and about four hundred years old with huge branches and massive trunks, around which the platforms are built. I mean these trees are so high you sometimes cannot see the bottoms from the platform. Or the tops, depending on which way you're looking. 
Zip-lining through the jungle was fantastic – even for us grandparents!
Anyway, we went about our way hiking through the jungle and flying through the jungle for 5 kilometers on a series of zip-lines, a small bungee and two abseils. The longest zip-line was 850 meters! Way cool! We also stopped at a gibbon farm where some of the gibbons are kept (not in captivity, but for study). And no, they are not monkeys, we were told. Hey, if it looks like a monkey, has hands and feet like a monkey and swings through the tree like a monkey – it's a monkey! Gibbon, shmibbon - it's a kind of a monkey.

After four hours of this activity, which went by so very, very fast – it's true that time flies when you're having fun flying – we completed the course and headed back to the van. Fortunately Bumping Billy wasn't driving it, and our new driver took us further up into the mountains to our next stop, a hiking trail to Mae Kompong Waterfall.

Here, the trail starts off winding its way through the jungle and then it comes to some concrete steps that wind their way up the mountain. Up, up, up the mountain they go. All the time, you're climbing the stairs alongside this spectacular waterfall of rushing water. Now it's not Victoria Falls, but more like Bridal Veil Falls, with a thin but steady flow of water rustling, gushing down the steep mountain. And you're climbing up and up and up this very steep staircase. Sometimes there's a banister to hold onto and sometimes there isn't. Sometimes the steps are firm and sometimes they're not. Anyway, it's about an hour and a half up to the top of the steps, and then there's still more to go but I said to my wife that I didn't want her to go further because it's already easy to slip up over there.
Abseiling down the tree!
The other thing about the jungle is the smell. It's like an evergreen, ever moist place, with this constant heady smell of lemongrass everywhere. It's simple intoxicating. Fantastic! I love the smell (and taste) of lemongrass, and that smell mixed with the other fragrances of the rain forest made the whole experience wondrous. OK, so now we were at the top, and now we had to go down to the bottom. So off we went and it took about 40 minutes to get back down, where in a hut at the bottom, the some of the gibbon staff were waiting with a warm fresh berry juice drink which was fantastic too!

Then back in the van and back to base camp for lunch. At base camp they offered us this Thai dessert that I have seen all over the place. There are two kinds and both come wrapped in banana leaf and tied with a bit of bamboo strip. Wrapped inside the banana leaf is some sweet rice with nuts of sweet rice with banana. I went for the first kind. My wife skipped them both.

Seeing as we weren't going to have lunch, we did go and sit with the others and chat while they ate. We were offered fruit platters and herbal tea which we had. In the background there sat three guys who played local tribal music on three strange looking local tribal musical instruments. Very pleasant, I must say. After that it was back into the van, NOT with the criminal, and we were driven back to our hotel. We got back at about 4 p.m. 9 hours after we left, pooped out and in need of a good sleep. 

Of course, that didn't mean we were going to skip the night market again. We got up in time to get the shuttle from the hotel, and this time we decided to do the northern part of the market which we hadn't done yet on the previous excursion. Turns out, the northern part of the market was not as attractive and a whole lot more crowded than the southern part, so after going up one side of the street and down the other side, we headed back to the big lot where we had been two nights earlier and did a browse around again just in case we could find something worthwhile. We didn't and so we headed back to Chabad for Supper and then walked back to the hotel.

Our plan on the last day in the city was to go and visit the old city of Chiang Mai. I must confess I didn't know what that actually meant. We had driven by some ancient looking walls the other night on the fateful pickup/taxi/sit-on-my-lap ride from the mall near the airport. Anyway, what we needed to do first was pack our things and check out and leave our stuff by the concierge. So we had a late morning and a late checkout, and then as we were leaving the hotel, our erstwhile hotel driver pulled up in one of those pickup taxis, dressed in jeans and a sleeveless T-shirt. Turns out this was his day off and he was caring for his alternate employment during his day off. Anyway, he had two Dutchmen in the back and added us to his load and off we went. The Dutchmen were on their way to a mall and we were on our way to the old city. Off we went, tra-la-la-la-la…

After zipping here and there and left and right and up and down a variety of streets, he stopped and let us off at one of the gates to the old city. OK, so what's the gate to the old city look like? Well, gate might actually be a loosely used term here. Actually, old city would be an even looser used term. 
The pillars marking the entrance to the old city of Chiang Mai
There are remains of an old wall on either side of two pillars. It's not very high and not very impressive. However, it is made of very small bricks, something like the wall around the old city of Xian in China. Just the difference is that there in Xian the wall is huge, about 5 times thicker than the walls of Jerusalem and about one and a half times higher, and there too, it's built with small bricks.

Anyway, we checked out the wall here and there and then we walked into the old city. Now once upon a time there was an old city here. Now there is but one relic of that old city. Also, it was never that old. I mean they're talking here about a few hundred years at best, and they have precious little accurate information about whatever went on here. I guess archeology is not an important science here in Thailand. One sign we saw at a ruin said something to the effect that "once upon a time there was something here but we don't know exactly when it was or what happened but we think that maybe this and that happened… or not." So that was rather disappointing. 

We passed a number of temples and monasteries, and then all of a sudden we saw this huge tower, but we didn't see how to get to it. So we stopped in at a travel agency, and the owner didn't know what we were talking about, but a few steps past his shop we found the entrance. Now this was a seriously impressive ruin. It reminded me of the temple where the monkeys hung out in "The Jungle Book". It had a real authentic ancient look. Very tall edifice, obviously an important and very large temple (or Chedi) once, sculpted elephants on its sides (some broken) – in short, this was an exciting find.
The enthralling ruin of Wat Chedi Luang – the oldest building in the city

It was a pretty hot day and by the time we found this place we had been walking about for about two hours, so we left and continued walking across the old city to the other side. There we left the old city and tried crossing the road, which was very busy. Then we noticed a guy standing on the other side of the road by a pedestrian crossing waving to us and showing us that he had pressed the light so that we could cross there. Very kind gentleman he was indeed – and also a tuk-tuk driver who offered to take us somewhere. But we decided to continue walking in the heat of the day. Stopped in at 7/11 for a drink and a chocolate (for me) and then continued toward the northwest corner of outside the old city where there was – you guessed it – a shopping mall! On the way we passed a place selling hi-tech gadgetry and we bought two iPad covers, one for me and one for our son. Then we continued to the mall, outside of which was a Starbucks (you never know when you're going to need that information). After some time in the mall where my wife found something she was looking for (escapes me what it was) and then the required stop at Starbucks for coffee, before making our way back to the hotel. 

I was too pooped to walk and we were MILES away from the hotel, so we looked for a cab. Found one who thought we were walking wallets and so we went looking for a tuk-tuk. We saw this funky lady standing by a tuk-tuk, with huge round spectacles and jeans – she must have been in her 60s and she "made us a good price" for the ride back to Chabad. Ah, by now for whatever reason, traffic was hectic. But our dauntless driveress was not to be stopped. She weaved and swerved through and around the traffic, looked like one of those old flyers from "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" accelerating and clutching and shifting gears (the gear stick is between her legs, so it's right foot on the gas pedal, left foot on the clutch, right hand on the break, left hand on the gear – I tell you it's tiring just watching her drive), along the main road, off the main road, onto a side street, down an alleyway, out to another side street, U-turn because it's backed up, down another alleyway, up a path, between some houses, up spook hill, and all of a sudden we're back on the main drag a half a block from Chabad. Bravo! She was so cute we took a picture of her (and with her).
Our dauntless tuk-tuk driver

After an early dinner at Chabad we walked back to the hotel, where they offered to drive us to the airport rather than wait for the shuttle, and off we went. Checked-in for the flight, went shopping, and then went to the gate to discover that Air Asia was delayed again. Which brings me back to the beginning of the Chiang Mai Chapter: Lo-cost often means lo-service. But we eventually boarded an hour late, and even had an empty seat between us. Arrived to Bangkok, hopped the train and underground and walked home. Back to familiar surroundings again. Amazing how much "at home" it feels. Everyone was asleep so we did our thing quietly, and went to bed. Good night!






Monday, March 26, 2012

Breezin' in Bangkok

The reason my wife and I are here in Bangkok is to spend some time with our children and grandchildren who live here. Our first task was to attend our granddaughters'  Hanukah party. It was very cute and the teachers obviously invested a lot in it. We met some of the Chabad wives who were at the party with their kids. Everyone – as is Chabad's custom – was very friendly and welcoming. I never cease to be amazed by the devotion that these families have. I mean by coming out to the boondocks here they really do give up a lot, despite the fact that here in Thailand there is a very big Chabad presence. There are of plenty families and they live in this closed society here, so there is plenty support systems for them. It's not like the Chabadnikim in Tokyo, for example, who are literally on their own, without any support. Even the family in Phuket has two other bachelors who are there as assistants. Here in Bangkok, each of the three Chabad houses has plenty of Chabad support staff from Israel. It's also interesting to see the ratio of foreign-origin shluchim there are versus the amount of Israeli-origin shluchim there are. Somehow it appears to me that most of the shluchim in 'difficult' places are from Israel, while those in 'easy' places are from the USA or other non-Israeli origins. Hmmmm…

Now, something about eating in Thailand. Not us - just the way people eat, you know, Amcha Thailand. It seems that there's an eating house every twenty meters. Someone has an agala with a gas powered stove thingy to heat pots or create deep fry, along with three small tables, 6 chairs and maybe an umbrella for each one, and lo and behold, there's a restaurant! Now the sidewalks are usually about 6 inches wide – just kidding – but they are about a meter wide. Of course once your tables, chairs, umbrellas, and kitchen are all out on the sidewalk, there is very little place for pedestrians. OK, so those then walk on the street, and then back onto the sidewalk – or not. So there is a fair amount of pandemonium as far as people walking in the street are concerned. My wife described the street scene as one of controlled pandemonium.

Bangkok - Skyscraper City
The traffic is amazing. For each car there must be 180 motorbikes, and at any one moment there are at least 2 million cars on the road in this city of 23 million people (daytime population), and the rules of the road are, well, sort of recommendations, really. Not really a code, so to speak. So a stop sign means slow down – if you feel like it – before squeezing in to the traffic, or pushing your way in. The only things that do work are traffic lights. But sometimes, your light can be red for 15 minutes due to heavy traffic in the other direction. Now, when your light does eventually go green you can't move anyway, because all cars going in the other direction have blocked the intersection. So you have to wait until the light goes green at the other intersection so that they can move out of the way. Of course, by that time, your light is red again. Very much patience is required. And of course there's absolutely no such thing as driving somewhere in a hurry. So when my daughter-in-law offered to take out special insurance so that they could give us the car, I looked at her aghast. What, me drive in Bangkok? No way Josina!

If you are in a hurry to get anywhere the best thing to do is take the sky train, the subway, or take a motorbike taxi. These are motorbikes with drivers and room for one passenger (even though we have seen the motorbike with one adult passenger and two child passengers). Helmets are NOT required, even though a few of the motorbike-taxi drivers have been known to once have seen one. The other option is to take a tuk-tuk. But the problem with both these options is that the pollution levels here are SO high that you'd probably catch some lung disease driving around on these.

Sightseeing via long boat on the river. What fun!
We've been very fortunate that the humidity has been not bad at all, what with it being winter and all. Now, winter means something very different in Bangkok than it does in other places. Seeing that this is very tropical weather, winter means temperatures of 26-28C (for you Fahrenheit people, you'll have to work it out). In short, it's very warm and sunny. The night time temperature drops only about 2 degrees, so it's much the same all the time.

Wanting to explore the city, we chose one day as a true sightseeing day. We walked to the sky train station and took the sky train from Phrom Pong station to Siam station (via Asok, Ploen Chit, Nana, and Chit Lom) and there we switched trains and continued to the National Stadium.

While we were at the sky train station looking at the map this American accented guy who must be a local expat comes over to us to offer assistance. Very nice of him, I must say. He said "You guys are shouting 'Tourist' all over so let me give you some words of warning." And he proceeded to tell us about all sorts of shady characters that hang out near the temple and the Royal Palace (where we were going) and tell people that come that the place is closed now until X time, so until it opens he suggest going to such and such a place or he will offer to take us to such and such a place, and of course this is a swindle of some sort. Well lo and behold, no sooner had we arrive at the temple when some guy comes to us to tell us that the temple is closed to 1 p.m. and he suggests that we go to such and such. Forewarned is forearmed, and so we ignored him and proceeded on our merry way.

The Wat Pho Temple Chedis are intricately and ornately decorated
Then we took another taxi to the Royal palace and the Wat Pho temple. Wat Pho is where they have the world's largest reclining Buddha – all 26.5 meters of him, and he's covered in gold leaf! Dude! The temple grounds are very ornate with tons of mosaic work all over the place. It's interesting that while I was looking at the forest; my wife was seeing the individual trees. She got into the detail of the mosaic and the material from which it is made. The gardens have lots of sculpted trees and hundreds of beautiful polished brass Buddha statues all over the place. After browsing the gardens and the various shrines we eventually came to the place where the reclining Buddha was housed. There you have to take your shoes off to go in (a la Japan). My wife wasn't into that at all, so she waited outside while I went in and took pictures for her to see. We spent about two hours at the temple and then walked over to the Royal Palace. The king doesn't actually live there and it's only used for coronations or very, very special state occasions. As we arrived at one of the gates to the palace, there was a soldier on guard there. I guess he was not from the Royal Guard because those guys were on the inside and were dressed up much fancier. This one was just in his green fatigues. Anyway, just next to him is another guy who tells us the palace is closed until 1 p.m. for lunch, and he suggests we go to such and such a place and then come back. Dude, don't you know every second guy hanging out here is trying the same scam?

Anyway, we ignored him and continued to the next gate which was – of course – wide open and taking everyone in. So in we went and bought tickets and some ice cream (Hagen Das!) and then traipsed into the palace. Once again beautiful gardens, sculpted trees, splendidly dressed Royal Guards who – like their Buckingham counterparts in London – don't even twitch. I went and took a picture with the guys. The only important building into which guests are allowed is the temple of the emerald Buddha (who is in fact made of Jade) which was not impressive at all. I've seen huge jade Buddhas in China. This one is tiny. But the mythical symbolism behind it is what’s important to the Thai people. What I like most is the architecture and the various Chedi (the Thai version of the Indian Stupa) of which some are scintillating sparkling white, some gold and most are covered in mosaic. Also, it seems to me that the issue of roofs exists here as it does (did) in China; in that roofs of Royal buildings are yellow. Yellow is also the color of the flag of the royal family, and you see it here all over the place. As a matter of fact today we drove along a street called "We Love the King Road".

After an hour and a half at the palace we were ready for something different, so we walked around this huge park opposite the palace toward Khaosan Road which is where the backpackers all hang out and where there is a kosher restaurant run by Chabad. Here too, one is jostled all the time by folks selling something in the street, as well as Sikh-looking fortune tellers and various other soothsayers.

Then to lunch, at last… We met the Shaliach who operates this Chabad House. It's a 5-story building with halls for Shabbat and hagim events, as well as a phone and internet café (free) and of course, a restaurant. Food was delicious! Then we started making our way back toward the Siam Paragon shopping malls (it's HUGE. It has a big Cineplex, a Madam Tussaud's Museum, a Fanatasyland, and Discovery land and a HUGE sea world inside the mall along with thousands of stores and a food floor the size of a soccer field) where Chabad was hosting a Hanukkah party. Chabad laid out free drinks and a full dinner for about 400 people, plus candle lighting and an Israeli singer who they brought out for the event. Amazing!

Some observations regarding some things we have seen.

First of all, flowers. There are flowers everywhere decorating all sorts of things. First of all, wherever there is a picture of the king (and there are pictures of the king everywhere) there is also a man-made garden around or in front of the picture. Now rather than plant an actual garden in the ground, the garden is created by placing potted flowers close together in attractive patterns. In this way the garden can be kept easier, and when flowers wither, they can be easily replaced, thus the gardens remain constantly pretty. Tree sculpting is also popular here in public parks and we have seen many gardeners occupied sculpting trees and hedges. So there is here this combination in gardening phenomena I have seen both in China (the potting issue) and in Japan (sculpting of trees and bushes). Another thing by which I am constantly amazed: the plentitude of orchids. Orchids are Thailand's national flower, mainly the purple ones with the white and yellow centers. Orchids are everywhere. I have also notice that in many places orchids grow on other trees, like palms and tamarinds. They way this is achieved is that they are simply hung around the tree trunk with their roots in clusters of unsupported soil. I don't quite know how the soil doesn't break off and fall away, but I guess the roots of the orchid also hold the soil together. It's both amazing and very beautiful.


Orchids are everywhere!
Now the issue of water. Water in Bangkok is free. Like in Vancouver when we lived there. You don't pay for water. And there is tons of it everywhere. First of all, there are the rivers and then there's the monsoon, and this year there was also the floods. So I guess there are ups and downs to this item. Add to the plenty water the high level of humidity that is typical in the tropics, and it's so wonder that gardens are green here. The grass is very different to the grass back home. The leaves of the grass here are much larger than ours. They also water the grass so much that any time we have walked on the grass in public gardens (yes, it is permitted) it has been like walking on sponge. The ground seems to be completely waterlogged.

Despite the description of Thailand as a place that is semi-disorganized, I noticed something worthwhile the other day. My grandson and I went to the mall to go bowling. We arrived half and hour before the mall opened (10 a.m.) and we had to wait outside. At about 10 to 10, the crowds outside the mall started to form a line that immediately began to grow in an orderly fashion until opening time. Then when the doors opened, people started filing in through the metal detectors, also in orderly fashion. And this is the height of pre-new year sale season. Very, very orderly. The same applies on the skytrain and on the underground. There are lanes for people getting off the trains and lanes for those getting on the trains. When the train arrives, then those who are waiting to get on wait until everyone who needs to get off gets off, and then those waiting to get on get on. The getting off lane is in the middle and the getting on lanes are on either side of the getting off lane. Very orderly. The trains can get crowded, specially at rush hour. Then again, during peak hours there are more trains; approximately every 4 minutes or so. So the system works very well. Also, it's spanking clean!


Fabulous Phuket? Not!

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi (pronounced Swarnapum) International Airport is quite amazing. First of all, it's HUGE!! I mean seriously large. It's one of those all-in-one-building airports, unlike JFK, or Newark, or Narita. Also, it's beautifully designed from an architectural point of view. But boy - is it busy! I flew with Air Asia who close their gates 20 minutes before takeoff, and at 30 minutes before takeoff I was only just completing check-in, and then had to walk forever to the gate. I guess that should have been a hint to me that departure would not be on time Anyway off I went to the gate only to discover that the plane wasn't even in yet. What was interesting though is that once the plane was in, it took about 25 minutes to disembark all the passengers who were on the arriving plane and also board all those who were leaving on our flight. Amazing!

The flight to Phuket was an hour and 20 minutes and uneventful. Once I arrived I went off to organize us some transportation from the airport to Patong Beach which is the area where I was staying. Phuket is a very large island with numerous beaches which are all loaded with hotels, resorts and shops by the million. It seems that tourists are all considered walking wallets because everyone is trying to sell you everything, a million times over all within a space of five meters. Massages, tattoos, all sorts of sea foods, hardware, chachkes, taxi service, tours, snorkeling services, and what not else, and of course, Thailand's notorious skin trade. The town is full of elderly Lotharios trying to regain their youthful lusty days. It's really quite pathetic to see elder men walking hand-in-hand with young girls (who are in it for the money), and it's even more pathetic when you overhear their conversations with their friends describing their "conquests" in detail, as was the case at Chabad (on Sunday – a few days time, but I'm writing looking back).
Which brings me again to the subject of Chabad. Once I arrived to my hotel at Patong Beach and checked in, I set off to find Chabad and get something to eat. It was already 4 p.m. and I was hungry. Chabad was about a 10 minute walk from my hotel, and once I found it I sat down to a lovely meal at their restaurant. Not fancy, but tasty good food.

After lunch/dinner I returned to the hotel and then went out for a walk around the area, down toward the beach (about 3 minutes walk) and then down the drag parallel to the beach. There was a parade going on and I asked what it was all about. I got a series of replies, starting with "It's a parade of the girly-men" and ending with "it's a parade for the beginning of the high season" which was more likely. First of all, there were no girly men. The parade started with the Thai version of hell's angels on huge bikes parading down the road. That was followed by a fleet of boom-box vehicles blaring music and ten gazillion decibels; then came a school marching band, followed by fireworks. Later on there was a whole lot of floating candles that were launched into the air. These are tea-light candles covered by a rice paper dome. The hot air causes the balloon to rise into the air and float away high. Quite amazing!

 Tropical Storm

The next day started with rain. To be more correct... RAIN!! Oh man, I have seldom seen such a downpour; true tropical weather. Hot and RAINY! BIG drops - and LOTS of them. OMG! So after I got up and had breakfast, while it was RAINING, and later when it sort of died down, I went out and got an umbrella and headed out again – to the beach! There weren't many people there and I basically had the beach to myself. By midday I went to Chabad for lunch and later on I returned to the hotel for a rest, prepared for Shabbat, and then walked back over to Chabad for candle-lighting and Kabalat Shabbat. There were TONS of people there. Many came for shul and many more came for supper. They had two sessions for supper: one right after shul and one an hour and a half later. Dinner was a 2-course meal (fish followed by chicken & rice with vegetables) plus salads. There must have been about 120 people the first session and about 80 the second round. Kol Hakavod to those Chabadniks. After supper, walk home and to bed.

A walking Restaurant

Shabbat Shacharit was called for 10 a.m. You gotta love those Chabadniks! There was more than a minyan by 10 a.m. and we davened pleasantly. Pesukei DeZimra was Edot Hamizrach, Shacharit was Nusach Ari, Kri'at Hatorah was mistake-ridden Chabad Style. Haftarah and Musaf were perfect J! There was a single session for lunch. Also 2 courses plus salads. Then back to the hotel via a long roundabout walk along the beachfront and a sleep till late afternoon. Got up for an in-room seudah shlishit, maariv and havdalah. After Shabbat I went out to one of these grand spectacle shows about Thai culture, along with elephants, water buffalo, goats, horses, and chickens, acrobats, clowns, dancers, fireworks, rain, and whatnot else. A grand show in a Disney type setting. All in all, it was a lovely and worthwhile evening. Late return to the hotel and to sleep.

Sunday started with breakfast followed by some beach time. Then to Chabad for lunch (here the local Israeli Lotharios were regaling one another with their escapades in the sack the night before and for how cheap they managed to get their rocks off. Pathetic and 'prost'.) After lunch it was back to the hotel to pack and go to the airport. The drive to the airport was via a whole lot of back roads which was very beautiful, jungle country and huge estates of the rich and famous, a massive British school with vast grounds and sports fields. Typically British! My flight was delayed an hour which meant that I arrived in Bangkok an hour later than planned, and had to wait for a taxi, so by the time I got back home, it was time to shower and to bed. 

Saturday, March 24, 2012

PEMESANAN

Pemesanan Produk
pesan sekarang,dan dapatkan produk elektronik dengan harga lebih murah.
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