The King and I :)

Swaaadeekhaaa
the thai greeting! and there's typical way to say it that us non thai people just can't copy.
last week I went to bangkok for a work related meeting. yes, quite fancy for somebody as inexperienced and junior in cadre as me. but that's how life is. one gets opportunities that they would'nt have thought of in jobs and places one would'nt have thought of entering.
even though I wasn't in the city of bangkok for more than 2 days, i found the city very comfortable.
maybe its in our nature to find any place similar to home or home country as comfortable, coz bangkok was a lot like India. true, they are a technologically advanced society and have come to terms with a lot of issues we seem to make no heads or tails of, but the city had that peculiar feeling of simplicity in all that jazz.
the people are very friendly even though they try to fleece you out of the meagre thai currency you have left, but they do it in a way that you would'nt feel so bad. women are attracted to infants and the men don't really care. and that's sooo like India!
it was great to visit the city after 10 years. the last time also i went there, the city was preparing for the King's coronation anniversary on May 5 and similar was the case this time. but i must confess he looks very handsome in the picture on the thai bahts :)

moving on, the street food stalls are the best example of thai entrepreneurship. and amazingly they all do good business.
walking through the streets of bangkok was an adventure for the olfactory sense. even though I do not eat a lot of meat and sea food, it is mesmerizing, scary and disgusting all at the same time to see thai street food cooking.
you can choose which creature u want out of a tub of creepy craw-lies and they would cook it right in front of you. be that blue legged tiger prawn or some small fish or some other sea creatures which I prefer not to picture in my mind right now. (frankly, im not fond of marine and aquatic life and am definitely not comfortable with eating them)
thai food stresses a lot on decoration and they go through a lot of trouble to make your food look good for you. but I just cant eat something whose eyes I can still see.

anyway, after 6 long days of eating not so interesting vegetarian thai fare (and looking at ugly non vegetarian and sea fare) I was back at chicken and rice and the general stuff that u don't see people writing a lot about.

bangkok is also an interesting tourist destination especially if u r in the mood of visiting temples. im not one of them but I think it is important to mention the Sleeping Buddha or the reclining Buddha if you may want to say so. the only words I could think of when I entered the temple complex was “O MY GOD!!!”
you cannot take a picture of the whole figure in one shot (especially from a camera phone, which was what I used) the figure is some 100-120 feet in length and made of gold is what i've heard. it was mesmerizing. words fail me as usual but I suggest that one see it to believe it.

another Buddha temple was in the grand palace complex-the emerald buddha. it was the tranquility of the place that is still etched in my memory.

even with time constraints, I managed to visit 2 market areas though I did'nt buy anything except a t-shirt. the chatuchak market is must for shoppers and the night market is great if you want to have live entertainment with thai food and beer.

coming to the drinking bit, I noticed people in Bangkok are beer fans. I am getting there myself and I quite like it, but bangalore being the beer capital of India is nothing compared to Bangkok. I might be wrong, but who cares. the beer is good and it flows :)

the swarnabhumi airport is another attraction (good place to pass time is more like it) it would be difficult to find a place to sit if you have lots of time on your hands but people prefer to saunter at the many duty free shops and that was exactly what I did.

so all in all, a good week spent in a not so foreign country and now I should be back at work.
more later if I get to go to Gangotri, which is on my travel plans next.

Khaapunakhaa :)