Thursday, September 4, 2014

bye bye manderz, hello Tiru

Fav Meal from this sweet place, May Kaidees
With Sinsiri as our guide, we were exposed to the realest of Thai culture. A local temple fair, meeting her family, learning the bus system, eating crazy food, swimming, having coffee breaks and just feeling pretty privileged and luxurious! Getting our own condo with an infinity pool- and getting to ride in her car to cool places! Saying bye to Amanda wasn't the easiest, I was so into our time together. A familiar face, confessing all my worries, doubts, fears, but also sharing with her my excitement and hope for my next leg of the journey.
The new temple!

Oyster Omelettes, can't leave Thailand without having one!

Our favorite girl, Sinsiri!

In Thailand, you don't have to be afraid to smile! 

I didn't quite figure out if locals actually eat these or not...

Donation Ribbons, so fancy

Found the bus stop..now just to find the correct bus...

That little red vehicle behind us is a tiny micro bus! 

Celebrating the King's Bday

Snackin' on Kao Sahn

English and what a cute street name!

Sweet Pics of the Royalty all over the place

I stayed in Bangkok a few days at this awesome guest house right on the river. Once again, no AC (not a problem) and no flushing toilet- BUT, there was an actual toilet, so that was cool! I was grateful for a toilet, it wasn't one you would put your bum on, but there was no squatting involved. I hadn't really been exposed to that yet, but I knew it'd be best to get used it cause I was going back to India soon. There was also not any privacy in this bathroom. It was outside of the room and there was a door, but you could hear everything that went down in there (literally). Flushing the toilet was easy, just fill up a bucket of water and dump it directly in the bowl- all your problems swept down, just like that. After the second time, I got really comfortable using this method of flushing.
After the Thai Tsunami, walkways were built like this due to the flooding.

The best thing about this house was the awesome location!
The plants, the river, the breeze
Homemade Thai food, here we go! 
Hot n Sweaty Sleeping Arrangements
I was able to explore a different side of Thailand. This area known as the "Backpackers Ghetto" or Kao Shan Road. It's what you imagine when you think of a lot of Westerners partying, shopping, getting tattoos, eating grilled scorpions on a stick, getting wasted on the street. It was quite opposite of what the last two months in SE Asia had offered me. It was quite overwhelming and not the kind of scene that I wanted to be immersed in. I noticed my resitance and released it. I mingled with the other guests in the house, helped the host cook dinner and even joined the crew up to Kao Sahn.

Near Kao Sahn, this is the abandoned building that people sneak into to see all the fish. The fish made it their home after the Tsunami and now a recent article has made it go viral!
 The best part of the night was finding a Thai Blues & Jazz Bar (with only Thai people)! These guys were jamming, and all the people in the tiny (I mean tiny) room were really into it. A lot of singing and about one person dancing (cause that's all there was room for).

Here's a tiny vid with some excerpts of the passionate Thai Blues singer + other Kao Sahn Moments:

We moved on to the Backpackers ghetto, got a cool performance by these break dancers, dared a friend to eat the scorpion and danced on the street. I'm glad I got to experience the famous road, and I even got to purchase a pair of fake Ray Bans- HEYO! The best shopping isn't in Kao Shan, however, you'll find this closer to the main temples. Sinsiri and her hubby had showed us the Thai Flea market earlier that week, it's walking distance from Kao Sahn and you can honestly find ANYTHING there. New and used, clean and dirty, useful and useless- whatever you want, it's there! It was mind-blowing! I couldn't even buy anything cause there was just so much to choose from and overwhelming- This is the kind of place you go to when you need something RANDOM.
Literally, anything- even a spiffy new do!
Phiman House Guests, two Americans, A Norwegian and a German
I am really grateful for those last few days in Thailand. I learned to stop resisting, to really find and harness the inner peace and project my happiness outwards. Being conscious of my mood, of my body language, allowed me to be open to new acquaintances that really enhanced my Thai experience. I was feeling quite ready at this point to surrender and allow the universe to work its magic on me. I finalized the last things to fly to Chennai. I did a bit of research and found the main Bus station where I would hop on the bus to Tiruvanamalai. My flight landed pretty late at night so I booked a hotel near the airport ahead of time through Booking.com - Once again, I chose to come from a place of abundance, so I picked a hotel that looked pretty decent. I was willing to pay a bit more to have something clean, with a toilet and with WIFI!

As I boarded my plane back to India I found my seat I got to chit chatting with the couple next to me. Dinesh and Lata, a couple from Northern India, living in Chennai. We quickly became friends and it's not because I'm "too" trusting- it's because I go with my instinct. I don't stay on autopilot, I pay attention, I feel, I think. This is intuition, a gift that we all have if we just stop and listen. I almost get into a meditative state when I'm conversing (especially with someone new) I look them in the eyes, and my guides always lead me to the best humans! In Indian tradition, guests should be considered Gods- So, after coming to the conclusion that I would not be able to find authentic North Indian food, Dinesh told me his wife would cook for me the next time I visited Chennai. We became Facebook friends, I got his business card and we agreed I would call them before I left India.

Airplane buddies! 
So, now I had these cool Indian friends and the real fun was about to begin. Upon landing, I say bye to my new friends, I go to the ATM for some Indian Rupees and I go look for my arranged ride from the airport to the hotel. According to the site I would have one, but there were just so many drivers standing behind the line calling out names, some had signs, some didn't. It was quite overwhelming, so I decided to trust and just hoped to miraculously figure something out. Then Lata and Dinesh appear, asking me how I'm getting to my hotel. Luckily, they've learned Tamil and were able to do some negotiating with a driver that would get me safely to the hotel-- yes, thank you!
My fancy hotel room in Chennai


MEMORABLE MOMENTS + TIPS:
  • In Chennai, the rickshaw drivers don't seem to want to take you very far. I had a really hard time finding a ride from the hotel to the main bus station. A lot of them were confused when I asked to be taken there. I figured out it's because I was calling it by the wrong name. According to Google, it's the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus..but nobody calls it that! So if you're in Chennai and want to catch a bus, ask to be taken to Koyambedu - and cross your fingers that the driver will accept :)
  • Long bus journey ahead of you? Do you have a strong stomach? Don't bother buying snacks! At any bus stop, traffic jam or red light, vendors will flock onto the bus selling food! If you are willing to trust what's in the food, then go on ahead and get yourself some food. ( I purchased a water and cookies for the ride, the food looked tempting, but I didn't want to get diarrhea on a NON A/C NO TOILET 5 hour bus ride).
  • Don't worry about buying a bus ticket ahead of time either. An attendant will stop by and ask each passenger their destination, he calculates the distance and lets you know how much you owe. I paid 110 Rupees for a 184 KM journey (under $2). In a place with decent roads this would take about 2 hours. The road was decent for the first 45 minutes and quickly worsened. I'm talking massive pot holes and bumps, and they don't slow down for the bumps. I was lifted at least a food off my seat for the last 3 hours of the ride! Talk about an adrenaline rush!
  • Women should brush their hair. I'm the wrong person to suggest that to, for I have never owned a hair brush. The 80 year old lady sitting next to me didn't speak any English, but she was able to communicate that she wanted water and that I should brush my hair and pull up into a pony tail. Don't ask me how she told me, but hand signs and facial gestures are easy to understand. 
  • Pack Light and just let your backpack get dirty! I know this is a DUH- My backpack wasn't actually very big so I just put it in the seat next to me. After a few stops the bus got completely packed. I had to give up my backpack's seat and couldn't squeeze it over head so I actually gave up my leg room to squish my backpack in there. I also was a bit foolish and chose to not use the bathroom at Koyambedu cause I didn't want to put my backpack down cause the floor was soaking wet (It was being washed). I'm ashamed, but the 1st World Grecia appeared and didn't want to remove her backpack to squat down. I just wasn't ready, so much for surrendering, but sometimes you're just not ready (and I wasn't ready)!

When she first started talking I thought she was asking for a selfie..then I figured out she just wanted me to look at my hair in the mirror... hahaha!

Five and a half hours later, a very sweaty Grecia finally arrived. I kept doubting where to get down but my old lady friend told me to sit down and wait and she would tell me when to get off. Once again, this communication wasn't in English, but somehow we got through to each other. Upon descending, I walked over to a phone shop. I tried buying a sim card for my phone but apparently you can't just buy a sim card in India if you're foreign. So, instead, I borrowed the shop owner's phone and called Isaac. Isaac and his family were going to host me during my time there. He was very happy sounding and told me he would arrive shortly. 

I gave the phone back and sat on the curb, basking in my sunshine, allowing my backpack to get gritty and waited with open arms and an open heart. 

I re-read his email and felt his joy through his broken English and allowed myself to feel the same.
-GIA


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