Geez, well I guess it’s 2009. Perennially disappointed by the buildup, I had high hopes for this NYE in Bangkok. It was interesting to say the least - tons and tons of people out in the street, from the very old to the very young - with firecrackers and sparklers everywhere to an extent that was borderline dangerous. We spent most of the night just wandering around, taking it all in, with a few stops along the way for sustenance. I’m proud to say that, while Alice tried to extract herself from a conversation with a Brit hell-bent on convincing her they were soulmates, I spent the first few hours of this year breaking it down Vietnamese-style on a Bangkok dance floor with my new friends – Frederic the fierce Frenchmen, Pond the Thai lady-boy, and Manuel the African who lives in Phuket.A good omen for the coming year, I think.
On a more serious note, I found Bangkok to be quite an impressive city – despite the jetlag. We spent New Year’s Day itself touring some of the most famous temples in town – Wat Pho, Wat Arun, and the Grand Palace. I thought I had seen some beautiful temples in Laos, but these pretty much took the cake, if you know WAT I mean. Massive, ornate, and busting at the seams with people coming to pay their respects – it was a beautiful way to ring in the New Year.
Prayers at Wat Arun - I felt a bit awkward taking this photo, but the sight was too beautiful to pass up!Flowers laid out by the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho.
Other highlights included visiting a massive mall with more neon lights and imitation handbags/make-up/clothes than I have ever seen in my life (Bangkok = Asian consumerism on speed), oo-ing and aah-ing over all of the adorable children, and taking a 5-hour cooking class with a spunky little Thai business mogul named May Kaidee. Here we met a group of girls teaching in remote areas of Thailand through the Fulbright Teaching Program, and it was a lot of fun to swap stories.
After a quick stop in Sài Gòn to spend the night with Thao and her fiancé Hai, I returned to Can Tho on Sunday to start the first week of the semester on Monday. So this week has been busy sorting all of that out, getting House #7 up and running again, meeting new students and thinking of ways to be a better teacher this semester…but more on readjustment later. For now, love to all and hope to talk to you soon!
