Futuristic malls & ancient temples

I picked up Gerni at Bangkok's spankin' new International airport and the two of us headed by bus to Khao San Road, the infamous three-block stretch of street that serves as Asia's largest traveler hub and biggest party center. The place is packed full of a diverse crowd — bearded hippies, sun scorched beach bums, chilled backpackers, Thai teens out on the town, frat house bros and sorority girls, young families, tattoo-clad shirtless meatheads, Thai working girls in ultra-short skirts, tuk-tuk drivers, elderly couples, Japanese hipsters, and a whole lot more. The wacky street is littered with shops selling Quiksilver and Puma knockoffs, cheap Internet, custom-tailored suits, fifty-cent pad thai, juice shops, bookstores, insect eateries (I tried a fried grasshopper), and about a thousand places to get a cold beer. It's not a good place to get a feel for Thailand, but it's a fun place to spend a couple of days, if only for the spectacle of it.

I hadn't seen Gerni (or any of my friends for that matter) in almost five months, so it was really great to finally see him. We spent a few hours catching up and he gave me some stuff from home. A new shirt to wear! A new pair of jeans! A pepper grinder! Candy! Money! A replacement watch! It's amazing what I get excited about after living out of a backpack for so long. My parents even sent a little travel-sized Christmas stocking along. Thanks guys!

Our first day together, we headed out to check out all Bangkok has to offer. We hopped aboard the Venice-like taxi boat for a trip a few miles down the river to catch the modern, elevated Sky Train. After a few hours outdoors we had enough of the absurd heat (95 degrees and 90% humidity) so we ducked into a mall on Siam Square in search of air conditioning. What we found—in addition to the delightfully cool AC—was the best mall ever built.

I don't really like shopping, and I generally find trips to the mall to be an irritating snooze-fest, but the Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok is a whole different story. Spread over eight stories, the mall is an overwhelming collection of multiplex movie theatres, ultra high-end boutiques, technology stores, the city aquarium, designer furniture outlets, a huge supermarket, plus shopping and restaurants galore. There's no way to really accurately describe how high-end this mall was, except to say that they had a Lamborghini store. With a Lamborghini parked inside for sale. Seriously. The place practically made Soho in New York look dumpy.

Here's a shot of one of many sets of escalators so you can get a feel for the massive scale of this place:



The food court alone was the size of a mall back home and had an endless sea of restaurants with every imaginable kind of food: Japanese sushi and dumplings, hot dogs and pretzels, exotic drinks, spicy Thai delicacies, coffee and espresso, American fast food, sandwiches and baguettes, Korean barbecue, Italian gelato, and more. We grabbed lunch from several restaurants, and then enjoyed a look around its luxury supermarket where Gerni got acquainted with new Asian brands:



In contrast to the mall, we also paid a visit to the Chattachuk Weekend Market, which is a sprawling, chaotic maze of tiny stores selling knick-knacks, paintings, antiques, food, souvenirs, puppies, books, and more. Each store is about the size of the car, and each one is packed full of as much stuff as humanly possible, which makes it virtually impossible to actually shop there. Regardless, we both thought it was really fun to get caught in the rivers of Thais and tourists flowing through the stalls.



Much of the rest of our time in Bangkok was spent eating the phenomenal food. My favorite food on earth—besides Taco Bell, of course—is probably Thai or Indian, so I've been in culinary heaven the last few months. The absurdly spicy Thai food incredible, and Gerni and I have been loving all of the strange and new flavors that I've eaten so far including fiery coconut curries, tropical sweet fruits, marinated grilled fish, and thick noodle dishes.

Since we'll use Bangkok as our base for exploring Thailand, we decided to get out of town for a few days and check out a few nearby areas a few hours north of town. Our first stop was Khao Yai National Park, just outside of the town of Pak Chong. Khao Yai is one of Thailand's largest national parks and its jungle setting is home to some stunning scenery and ferocious beasts. We joined up with a few other people for an all-day tour of the park, which was led by Steve Irwin-incarnate, a cheerful and crazy Thai guide named Mr. A.

We drove through the park on bench seats in the back of a pick up truck, and Mr. A would shout excitedly when his eagle eye landed upon wildlife. This guy could spot a tiny woodpecker from 100 meters away — it was incredible. After stopping to see toucans, hornbills, monkeys, bats, and giant squirrels, he shouted "python!!!" then jumped off the moving truck because he was so excited. Sure enough, there was a python slithering near the road, and Mr. A wasted no time to grab it by the tail.

"I'm like Steve Irwin!!!," he exclaimed.
"Steve Irwin died, man," we told him.
"I know!!! Ha ha!," he replied.
There was no keeping Mr. A down.



We got off the truck and went on a few hour walk through the thick jungle. Neither of us had ever really been in a jungle before, and I was loving every minute of it. Vines hung down all around us, tropical birds watched us from above, and the place was scattered with creepy spiders. This one is known as a horn spider — can you guess why?



Walking along the river, Mr. A spotted a crocodile about 15 feet away from us. The croc sat still with its mouth open waiting for lunch to walk into its mouth. It was pretty frightening to see a crocodile that close that wasn't behind a fence at the zoo. Luckily, Mr. A was smart enough not go to screw with the crocodile like Steve Irwin would have. We ended up at a couple of spectacular waterfalls, one of which was a filming location for the waterfall-makeout scene in the horrible movie (but great book) The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio. For scale, the blue spot at the top of this photo is a person:



Back in the truck just after the sun went down, we stopped for a minute on the side of the road and Mr. A spotted a wild elephant about 50 feet away. The elephant moved toward us, and the guides firmly told us to quickly and quietly get back in the truck. For a little while, the elephant ignored us, but quickly got irritated with our presence. It bellowed out a scream, aggressively raised its long trunk and ivory tusks, and started running directly toward the truck. We all shouted and the driver slammed on the gas and sped a few meters, and the elephant backed down. They eased the truck backwards so we could sit and watch the elephant again. Shortly afterward, the angry elephant charged again. A few more times, Mr. A tested the elephant's patience, and on the final time it charged us in a full-on sprint. We sped off, hearts racing, back to the safety of the visitor's center. I don't know if you've ever had a wild elephant repeatedly charge you before, but I can tell you from experience that it was scary as all hell. I damn near had to change my pants afterward.

We left Kao Yai on a train bound for nearby Ayutthaya, which is home to one of Thailand's best collections of ancient temples, spread across much of the old city. We rented bikes and did a self-guided tour to as many of the 12th century temples as we could. In one of the larger temple complexes, there is an amazing Buddha head which has been wrapped over the years by the growth of a fig tree.



Both of us really enjoyed wandering through the city's awesome temple collection, which is internationally recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was the capital of the country—then known as Siam—until 1767 when it was attacked and burned or destroyed by the Burmese. What remains today surely isn't up to its original splendor before the destruction, but are still spectacular to look at. Here's Gerni climbing up one of our favorite temples:



Our next stop was Lopburi, a few hours by train north of Ayutthaya. The town has a really pleasant and laid back small town feel, which we both really enjoyed. Our room had a TV—a first for Thailand—but it unfortunately only showed Fox News. I'm glad to know that Bill O'Reilly is still being a dick in my absence.

We hit up the city's excellent and thorough museum about the area's culture, art and architecture, which helped make some sense of the temples back in Ayutthaya and the additional ones in Lopburi, built around the same time. I was surprised to find out that the area has had a close relationship with many European countries since the mid-1600s, which is reflected the odd Thai-European architecture around town.



Lopburi's claim to fame in Thailand is that it is home to a few hundred monkeys, which mostly seem to gather around one of the city's wats (temples). Gerni was smart and kept his distance from the creepy little bastards, but I got up close hoping to get some good photos of them. As I shot the photo below, two monkeys went on the offensive by jumping on my back. I freaked out and managed to shake them off before they were able to scratch or bite me, which was for the best. I guess that's why you get rabies boosters before you travel, eh folks?



So far, the two of us are loving Thailand. The Thai people are unconditionally friendly, and seem to constantly have a smile on their faces. The happiness is incredibly contagious, so we keep finding ourselves wearing big smiles as we enjoy the relaxed Thai lifestyle.

We're back in Bangkok now, and we're off to the airport tonight to pick up our friend Tom Garrett, who will join the travel train for the next three weeks. I hope winter is going well for everyone — I'm going to head outside now into the 75 degree evening air for a beer. Cheers, and happy holidays to all of you.

Ryan!

Photos updated: Varanasi, Kolkatta, Bangkok, Kho Yai National Park, Ayutthaya, Lopburi