Chiang Rai and the White Temple

Jesse and me at the White Temple. It looks pretty, but wait until you get closer...

If you ever find yourself in northern Thailand, visit the White Temple. Once you see it, you will have a hard time forgetting the demon heads, the albino koi, and the glittering towers that have made Wat Rong Khun so famous.

Day 6 (Jan. 29): The White Temple (Wat Rong Khun)

Jesse and I teamed up for a few days in order to get from Thailand to Laos. On our first day together, we found ourselves lost in Chiang Rai, and it was hot. We'd been given incorrect directions to our hostel from the bus terminal, so we popped into a nearby cafe for Thai milk tea (it's orange and delicious!) and some complimentary Internet. I also got a souvenir cup from the cafe! Finally, we found FUN-D.

Chiang Rai hostel rec: FUN-D hostel is hands-down the best hostel I've been to in Southeast Asia. It is large, spacious, and clean. The staff are enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and the entire space is geared toward travelers in transit, since most of their clientele are simply passing through this small town on their way to Laos or Myanmar. It was a shame I only stayed there one night (as I, too, was in transit), because their facilities were top-notch, including a computer room, a restaurant and bar, and coin laundry! (I should have done my laundry...)

The helpful folks at our hostel checked us in promptly, and when we mentioned that we wanted to visit the White Temple, they sprang to action and flagged down a passing songthaew (like a big tuk-tuk, or a kind of pickup-truck taxi) and arranged a trip for us: 400THB for a round-trip ride to the temple, which is on the outskirts of town. That came out to about six bucks per person, which is more expensive than your usual local taxi, but since it was already getting late in the afternoon and we had to get there before it closed, we took the deal.

Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple in Chiang Rai.

Demon head on a tree!

No regrets whatsoever. Sooner than I expected, we'd arrived at the temple grounds, and my jaw dropped. It was gorgeous: a pure white building inlaid with glass that made it almost sparkle in the sun. A moat with fountains and statues of dragons added to the initial mystical impression. Then, I took a closer look and was stupefied: sculptures of monstrous heads hung from trees. Demonic guards threatened visitors with glittering white swords. Hands rose from a hellish pit before I crossed a bridge that led to the sanctuary. What the heck is this place, I thought.

Once inside the sanctuary, I saw a Buddha statue, tranquil as always, but on the wall opposite his placid smile, scenes of apocalypse had been painted on the wall: a mural depicting a demon swallowing a world on fire, with warlike images such as nuclear missiles and an unmistakable (and horrifying) depiction of the September 11th attacks. All throughout, a seemingly arbitrary selection of pop culture icons like Spiderman, Neo, the minions from Despicable Me, creatures from Avatar, Lara Croft, Michael Jackson, and even Doraemon, flew around the doomsday scene, some caught in the tentacles of destruction and others simply posing as the world ended. On the two adjacent walls, families of every race and ethnicity were depicted riding magic carpets toward Buddha and his version of heaven.

It was bizarre.

Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside the sanctuary. So, here are more from the grounds around the temple complex. You should also definitely search online for more images; the list of weird and wonderful things to see is endless.

A crystal ball?

The truly creepy and unforgettable hands from hell.

More demon heads... wait, isn't that Hellboy? And Batman? And Freddy Krueger?

Wishes written on charms; tens of thousands of these were hung up on poles and resembled giant tin Christmas trees.

White reigns surpreme at this temple.

I walked through the temple without a clue as to what it was all about, but I knew there had to be some amazing story behind it. Some quick research tells me it was designed in 1997 (and will not be completed for at least another decade) and is meant to evoke Buddhist themes of life, death, and escape from evil in a way that is suited for contemporary society.

The White Temple will leave you in awe, I guarantee it. There's nothing quite like it in the entire country, I'm sure. I walked through the entire complex twice (entrance is free!) just before the site closed at 6pm, and I took as many photos as I could.

After returning to the city, we walked around and found nothing much of interest to do. There was a pretty clocktower, after taking a photo of which Jesse remarked, "Well, we've seen Chiang Rai. Now what?"

At night, we meandered around the night bazaar for a bit, munching on some snacks but mostly staring wide-eyed at others. Some of the fare at the bazaar included fried crickets, cockroaches, and mealworms! I passed on those, but I did eat green curry, a black sticky rice patty with peanut powder, fried eggrolls, and an ice cream sundae served in a fresh coconut! Also, we kept running into the same travelers we'd seen before. The backpacking route Jesse and I had just begun is a very well-traveled one; if you follow it, you're likely to end up moving at the same pace as many other people. Thus, this was to become a theme of the next few days: "Oh, I've seen you around, haven't I? So where are you headed next?"

For me, the answer is: Laos!

This nice lady grilled a black sticky rice patty and then rolled some peanut powder up into it and gave it to me wrapped in a banana leaf and it was delicious and the best part is that she smiled for this photo!

Hm... okay, not hungry.

Man in the 'Murica bandana scrapes a coconut shell clean for some ice cream!

Coconut ice cream sundae for 75 cents! What a treat!

Monday in the Park with All the Hipsters in Chiang Mai

Wat Pra Singh (taken by Quentin)

Day 4 (Jan. 27): I explored Chiang Mai on foot with a new friend.
Although I had only the vaguest of directions, I managed to find my hostel without a problem. After checking in, chilling for a bit, and finding a new French travel buddy, I was off to explore Chiang Mai!

Bunchun Art and Hostel; the art explosion lounge on the ground floor was a great space for hanging out.

Chiang Mai hostel rec: Bunchun Art and Hostel is a wonderful space created (and curated) by some super-friendly folks. It's absurdly affordable (the cheapest place I stayed at during my whole trip, not counting someone's home) and has a very unique atmosphere. The entire hostel is filled with art -- sculptures, paintings, and murals -- all of which is created by local artists. Most of it is also for sale to help support the art community. The staff speak excellent English and are very helpful with booking day tours or treks for you. My adventures in and out of Chiang Mai wouldn't have been possible with the guys at Bunchun. I'd also heard that it was a queer-friendly hostel. This wasn't immediately apparent, but on my first night, the hostel owner, Vee, invited guests to watch a local drag show (with Thailand's well-known "ladyboys"), and that was as good an indication as any.

Pad thai at a local restaurant. Mmm, peanut powder!

Anyway, I set out on Monday afternoon looking for lunch, along with Quentin, un mec de Paris who was two months in on a half-year trek around the globe. I was glad to have met someone who'd already been on so many awesome adventures (in South America and other parts of Southeast Asia), and it was also great that I could use my rusty French again. (A lot of my notes from the two days I hung out with Quentin are sprinkled with French words as a result.)

We got lunch at a local restaurant with absolutely no English on any of its menus. I simply had to point to something that looked like pad thai, and fortunately it was! It was also delicious. I wish I knew what the restaurant was called, but I can't read Thai. I just remember that it was near the art museum and had no walls and excellent decor.

After lunch, we walked from Bunchun, which is located next to the Marché de Nuit/Night Bazaar, into the Vielle Ville/Old City (about twenty minutes). The only thing I knew about Chiang Mai going in was that it is famous for having many temples. Well, this is very true. There was about one temple on every block. They were as ubiquitous as convenience stores. Quentin and I wandered around a few but then made a beeline for the largest and most famous, Wat Pra Singh. It is located on the far western end of the Old City, so it took us a while to get there. Without any real schedule, though, the leisurely walk was very nice.

Quentin and me outside the walls of Chiang Mai's Vielle Ville.

Headless Buddha. They're not supposed to exist if broken...

Wat Pra Singh is also lovely. I didn't want to bother paying the entrance fee to the actual temple, so we just wandered around the grounds and saw smaller shrines, broken Buddha sculptures in repair, and a special wishmaking ceremony involving a cup of water that you can lift to the top of a temple using a pulley in order to spill it on the roof.

We then walked across the city to the Chiang Mai Women's Prison, because there is a famous rehabilitation program for the inmates in which they learn how to give traditional Thai massages and make a decent living out of it before returning to society. Unfortunately, the prison massage center was full when we arrived, and reservations are not possible. Instead, Quentin and I headed across the city again (lots of walking today) for Buak Hat Park in the southwestern corner.

Suan Buak Hat in Chiang Mai.

Thai Dr. Seuss hands me a $1 ice cream sundae.

This park is such a gem! It is "super-paisible" and full of trees, flowers, and fountains. The perfect place to chill, and thus a great place to people-watch. Men were doing extreme yoga (and offering lessons), while other people jogged or biked around the park. Pigeons flocked to couples feeding them bread crumbs from park benches. On the grass, dozens of foreigners were sprawled out on blankets, smoking, meditating, or playing music. They all had dreadlocked hair and baggy mahout pants (elephant pants), and I wondered if I'd walked into a hipster commune of some sort.

I had such a nice time walking around the park and taking photos; I was really taken in by how beautiful the park -- and by extension Chiang Mai, and all of northern Thailand that I had seen so far -- was, and I felt like I could easily while away hours and hours here. Give me ice cream from the bizarrely-dressed ice cream man or a one-dollar mango smoothie and a book, and I'm good for the whole afternoon.

Later on, a group of older Thai men began playing hoop takraw, drawing a big crowd of specators (mostly foreigners). Quentin, who used to play basketball, was really curious about how to play; he'd imagined that it was kind of like basketball in a circle. As it turns out, the game is more like hackey sack. You can use your head, shoulder, elbow, or feet to hit the ball, and the goal is to get it into one of three hoops hanging thirty feet above the ground. This is very difficult to do. However, it is fun to watch. I kept egging Quentin on to join them in the game, but he said he was no good at soccer. I wonder if Park Ji Sung would be good at takraw.

Hoop takraw at the park in Chiang Mai. It's harder than it looks... and it actually looks hard!

Eventually, as evening approached, we made our way back to the hostel, where I got in touch with two of my Fulbrighter friends, Jet and Cameron. It's kind of a funny story: I'd seen that Jet had uploaded a photo of himself riding an elephant onto Facebook, realized that he was probably in Chiang Mai, and messaged him asking if he was in the city and able to meet up. Coincidence of coincidences: his hotel was right across the street from my hostel! So that night, we met up at the Night Bazaar.

Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. It's pretty, but kind of blah... a night blahzaar. (Taken by Quentin, who is tall.)

The market itself was pretty thorough, with hundreds of stalls selling every kind of souvenir a tourist would ever want: clothes and textiles, toys, sculptures, food, jewelry, soaps, elephant-shaped things, cheap household things, useless shiny things, and the like. I found it rather lacking in authenticity, though, so I didn't look around much. I also don't recommend eating at the food court that is attached to the market. You have to purchase food tickets that can be used at the vendors (and you can return any that you don't use for a full refund), but the vendors are pricey and the food is nothing special.

Left to right: me, Cameron, Quentin, and Jet at the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar.

Anyway, it was really nice to see Jet and Cameron and exchange stories. They had just been to Malaysia and regaled us with some choice horror stories... we also bonded over these amazing fruit shakes that we found. Okay, no, seriously, this is the best thing in Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai food rec: There is a tiny shake shack found at the back corner of the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar, next to the large stage where people dance sometimes. The shack is run by a smiling, friendly woman who makes the most delicious and cheap fruit shakes ever. The fruit smoothies are only 20 baht, and the mixed shakes are 30 baht (90 cents in USD). And she has avocadoes! The "Sweetsunrise" shake is a whole mango, a whole banana, and a whole freaking avocado mixed with syrup and condensed milk for 90 freaking cents! What?! The shake portion is so large that you have to take a sip of it first (the "taste test") before she can fill it up and put the cap on. So this pretty much blows my mind. I don't know how she makes a profit, but take me back to this shake shack and I will buy ten freaking fruit smoothies from her. Every day. They were that amazing.

The one-woman shake shack in Chiang Mai. LOOK AVOCADOES!

DRINK THIS. IT IS DELICIOUS AND IT COSTS 90 CENTS. SCREW YOU, JAMBA JUICE.

Quentin and I went back to the hostel that night and hung out for a while with the staff and fellow travelers, spreading the gospel of the tiny shake shack with avocadoes.

And... here are some SNAKES.

Hissss...

A Church and a Temple

Day 3 (Jan. 26): Talat Phlu Baptist Church, Wat Traimit, and the Golden Buddha

I woke up bright and early on Sunday to meet my father's friend for church. He invited me to visit the small church on the outskirts of Bangkok where he gives sermons from time to time. The church is in Talat Phlu; we took the Skytrain all the way to the end of the line then walked quite a ways to get to it. The neighborhood was quiet in the morning; it seemed so distant from the bustle of downtown. Everything, in fact, was quiet in some sense for me: we arrived an hour before the service for a prayer meeting, but I could not speak the language, so I kept silent. I realized that I was about to sit through a church service and not understand a single thing. It would be a sort of spiritual listening exercise.

Of course, being an outsider meant that I drew attention, and a few people came over to talk to me. As it turns out, a handful of the older congregants, including the elderly woman in charge (perhaps an elder or deaconess?), could speak Mandarin. I mentioned before that Thai and Mandarin are both tonal languages; thus, I was unsurprised that the woman's Mandarin, while not completely fluent, was nearly flawless pronunciation-wise. I was grateful that I was actually able to communicate some. Later, during the post-service lunch, I met some of the youth and young adults in the congregation who spoke English fluently, and they proved to be invaluably helpful and friendly. The church gave me a gift and even bought my train ticket to Chiang Mai for me. I actually felt burdened(1) by it, but they just said, "Please pray for us, and come visit again!" Such generosity...

I explored the humble neighborhood around the church with one of the youth after lunch. It was very interesting to see a part of the city that had absolutely no foreigners in it. At least, no foreigners walking around. As multicultural as Bangkok is, the expats are limited to certain districts. Here, the only foreigners I saw were passing through on rainbow-colored boats cruising through the narrow, polluted canals. Every so often, they would stop to feed bread to frighteningly large fish that somehow survive in the dirty water. When I left, I braved the ancient, loud city buses and rode for an hour(2) to get to the train station; that evening, I was to travel north to Chiang Mai. However, I had a few hours to kill...

Wat Traimit in the late afternoon. The man in the portrait is the current Thai king (he's everywhere).

So after getting lousy directions from a tuk-tuk driver who wanted to scam me into a tour, I walked to Wat(3) Traimit, the home of the famous Golden Buddha. This was the first temple I went to in my travels, and what a precedent it set!

The Golden Buddha is the world's largest statue made of solid gold. That's right: solid gold. It's at least six hundred years old, although the temple it's currently housed in is a new construction. I walked straight past it on my first day in Bangkok (it's located in Chinatown), not realizing what was inside. This time, I had a good look around. It was undeniably impressive.

I do wish I'd paid more attention during my Eastern religions course in college, though, because I know embarrassingly little about Buddhism and couldn't tell you anything you can't learn on Wikipedia. Anyway, here's a photo I snapped of the Golden Buddha:

Three meters tall and five-and-a-half tons. Nine pieces of solid gold. Extravagance.

What you can't see is the constant stream of tourists taking photos with their phones and iPads. I was just as guilty: I tried taking a selfie with the big guy but with my dSLR, and it didn't turn out too well. Whatever! I think the designs of the rest of the temple were just as fascinating, including the doorway you see up at the top, and the rows of small metal bells ringing in the wind outside. Oh, and at the base of the temple there was a monk giving blessings, and he was so perfectly framed:

Buddha and a monk!

Temples are everywhere in Thailand, as numerous as churches are in Korea. I felt odd about visiting them for a couple of reasons: first of all, they're supposed to be places of worship, so isn't it disrespectful or at least inconvenient to have tourists constantly streaming in and out and breaking all of the rules? If I were trying to pray at a temple, I would get really annoyed at loudmouthed Americans treating my sacred space like a public park. It's a similar feeling to the one I had when I tried to walk around Notre Dame de Paris in respectful silence, but the people and their cameras were just too ubiquitous -- to say nothing of the priest trying to perform Mass at the same time. Secondly, due to my unfamiliarity with temples, they tend to look the same after a while. Only the really unique ones leave an impression on me.

So that's that. I'll leave you with some photos I took around Talat Phlu, the foreigner-free neighborhood where I spent the morning, and others around Bangkok, since the next time I'll write, it'll be about leaving the capital for Chiang Mai!

A woman selling delicious-looking fruits beneath an overpass in Talat Phlu. Look at those giant pomelos!

Photos of the king abound, even on the tin walls of outdoor living rooms.

Tourists on colorful boats cruise down the canals that also serve as dumping grounds for local residents. Charming.

Just... because.

My last meal in Bangkok: chicken noodle soup from a food cart. $1.50.

- - -

(1) I suddenly have memories of studying Marcel Mauss in my religion seminar...

(2) The length of the trip was partly due to absurd Chinatown traffic, construction, and the shut down of some major roads. However, it was only like twenty cents, and I saw quite a few interesting things from my seat. I'm a fan of buses in Southeast Asia.

(3) "Wat" means "temple" in Thai (and Lao).

Bangkok is One Big Food Court

And now, I will attempt to recall my two weeks of travel in Thailand and Laos with one blog post per day. It will probably take more than fourteen days.

The Chinese Gate in Bangkok.

Day 1 (Jan. 24): Travel.
I first flew from Busan to Kuala Lumpur with AirAsia, a super low-cost airline that leaks advertising out of its pleather seat cushions and turns its aircrafts into billboards. They know the importance of branding. Stepping out of the plane in KL was my first experience in Southeast Asia, and it was muggy. Waiting in line at the international transfers hall for over an hour was my second experience in Southeast Asia, and it was annoying. Beginning and finishing The Things They Carried while waiting five hours for my next flight was my third experience in Southeast Asia, and it was alternatingly confusing, captivating, and boring. I was pleased to leave the KL airport.

I arrived at Don Muang Airport in northern Bangkok near 11:00pm. This was when I actually felt like my travels had begun: exchanging money, seeing signs everywhere in the Thai script, which I can't read at all, and walking around with my heavy backpack on: all of this certainly kicked my wanderlust into high gear. I'm somewhere I've never been before! I'm alone! I have no strict schedule! This is going to be awesome.

Bangkok travel tip: don't take a taxi from either of the international airports to downtown. From Don Muang (DMK), take the A1 airport shuttle for 30THB and 30 minutes to the Mo Chit metro station. From there, take the subway or the Skytrain (BTS) downtown. From Suvarnabhumi (BKK), take the airport link. I don't like taxis. Use this transportation website to help you plan.

So I caught the last airport shuttle (11:30pm) heading out and then the last Skytrain heading downtown just after midnight. Bangkok's metro system seemed really clean and modern; on the other hand, its streets are not. And it was these dark, dirty, post-market, traffic-fume-clogged streets I walked through for twenty minutes before finally arriving at my hostel.

Bangkok hostel rec: New Road Guesthouse (run by Visit Beyond). +1 for $7 dorm housing, +1 for proximity to Chinatown and Sukhumvit Road and distance from the craziness of Khao San Road, +1 for computers and wifi, +1 extremely friendly and helpful staff (among the best I encountered in my entire trip), and +1 for the cool map of Bangkok they gave me.

My first night, I actually stayed up long past when I should have passed out after a day's travel, because I met some local Thai guys working at the hostel and chatted with them at the bar. Like I said, friendly and welcoming staff!

Bangkok Chinatown: gold stores and red charms for the Lunar New Year.

Day 2 (Jan. 25): Bangkok is one big food court.
So, my first "cultural" experience in Thailand was in the Chinatown of Bangkok. It was a pleasant half-hour walk away from my hostel, full of different sights and sounds than the ones I'm used to in clean, organized Korea. I wended my way through streets overflowing with vendors as the early morning traffic turned into late morning traffic. I bought a whole sliced mango for a dollar! There were tons of food stalls, restaurants, and a string of gold shops. Many vendors were selling red lanterns and gilded decorations for the upcoming Lunar New Year. It was funny that I was surrounded by the symbols of Chinese culture rather than Thai culture, but obviously the cultures have influenced each other greatly, so who's to say what icons and traditions belong to whom?

For breakfast, I met up with two fellow South Korea Fulbrighters who happened also to be in Bangkok, although they were going to leave for Cambodia that day. I really enjoyed catching up with Taxi and Jessica and hearing their thoughts on Southeast Asian culture as they'd experienced it so far. What they told me -- and what I eventually came to experience for myself -- was that the poverty was so dire at times as to be physically arresting, and that I could expect to be made uncomfortable by the tourism industry's complete lack of subtlety. Although our time together was brief, it was nice to start everything off with a set of friendly, familiar faces.

Taxi, Jessica, and me in front of Wat Traimit.

For lunch, my dad set me up with an old colleague of his from Taiwan. Dr. Weng moved to Thailand five years ago to do Christian missions work. He had gotten to know many Thai immigrants to Taiwan(1) whose accident-prone industry jobs landed many of them in his hospital. He had ministered to them and encouraged them to bring the Gospel back to their rural hometowns in Thailand.

Later, he heard that they were having trouble establishing Christian communities in this 90% Buddhist and 0.5% Christian country, so he felt called here to help. Fortunately for him and his wife, they found support at the Bangkok Christian Hospital, where he is now based. He travels regularly to other cities in Thailand, especially rural areas, to aid their church congregations and also preaches (in Thai! He found it easy to pick up the local language, partly beacuse it is pentatonemic, just like Mandarin). Dr. Weng gives sermons regularly at a small community church in Talat Phlu, and he invited me to visit the following day.

Also, lunch was delicious. We had papaya salad, steamed fish, sticky rice, and a variety of spicy dips for the rice. I found it easier than I expected to get to know my dad's colleague, since we spoke for most of the time in Mandarin, which I haven't used in years. But anyway, I was happy to get to know him and his work and was blessed by his gift of a Thailand-shaped wall hanger.

After lunch, we took a walk in a nearby park. That park turned out to Lumphini Park, one of several sites of the anti-government protests that have taken over the capital city. More on that later...

For dinner, I made a date with two Americans I'd met in Changwon. Chris and Leah were teachers in Korea for one year, but then moved to Thailand, where Leah now teaches at an international school she loves and Chris is starting up a sustainable carpentry business. They are such a lovely couple.

Chris and Leah in Soi 38 of Sukhumvit Road, with burgers from Daniel Thaiger's food truck.

They took me to the area around Sukhumvit Road, which is famous for its food alleys. Soi 38 is a dead street(2) during the day but comes alive with restaurants and food stalls at night. It is home to what Chris calls the best burger truck in all of Bangkok. I didn't get a burger, but I did try Thai noodle soup and coconut-mango sticky rice for the first time (and fell in love). "Well, this is a neat little food court," I remarked.

"All of Bangkok is a food court," said Leah. She is so right.

In the evening, we went to their church. It's called Newsong, and I thought that that name sounded very familiar... Then, one of their members made the connection for me: they're a church plant of Newsong in Irvine, CA! That's the megachurch my missions team visited every single summer before and after our week-long service trip in Tijuana, Mexico. I was really astounded by how small the world became; however, I wonder how many people at Newsong are actually aware of this passionate, sixty-odd-strong group of urbanites over eight thousand miles away?

Anyway, Newsong Bangkok was delightfully friendly and welcoming, expats and local Thai alike. I liked how comfortably they squeezed into a renovated space the size of your average Korean cafe, how everyone wore flip flops and a smile, how energetic the music was -- and they sang some songs in Thai! I was touched when one of the guitarists shared a song he had written during a time of depression, and I was impressed with the simultaneous interpretation of the sermon (given by their super chill bro-y American pastor) and announcements into Thai.

By the end of just one short service, I really missed church. I attend an international fellowship regularly in Changwon, but it's not the same by a long shot. Yes, I love my community, but to be honest, I haven't felt like I've received much spiritual nourishment from the services for several months. Newsong has a lot of the typical factors that appeal to Christians of my generation and a definite hip (or hipster) aura: young congregants, Saturday-evening services, relevant teaching rooted in real life, and even a fair-trade coffeeshop. Its diversity is also stunning; not just in having a congregation that is 50% local Thai, but also the wide variety of foreigners.

As Taxi and Jessica had told me earlier in the day, and as Chris and Leah reiterated when I asked them, Bangkok's diversity is pretty difficult to rival, and its foreigner population(3) is comprised of all sorts of unique and awesome people. It's not like Korea, where most of us waygooks are English teachers. People come to Bangkok from all over the world to study, to sell jeans, to start businesses, to "find themselves", to teach, to learn, to open up gyms, to get married, to do missionary work... Bangkok is crazy multicultural. I suppose it's comparable to Seoul, but Jessica said that even Itaewon has nothing on Khao San Road.

Mmm, and with cultural diversity always comes a smorgasboard of delicious food. So that was my first full day in Thailand: I met awesome old friends and made new ones, and I got just a taste of something "different" that would come to define the next two weeks. Oh, and I also went to the Bangkok anti-government protests, but that's a story for tomorrow.

Mango with coconut sticky rice; this stuff is amazing, and it only costs a dollar or two!

- - -

(1) Confusing, isn't it? Even a lot of Koreans mix up my ancestry, thinking I'm from 태국 and not 대만.
(2) Soi means "alley", and many streets in Bangkok are numbered and referred to as Soi 1, Soi 2, etc. of the nearest large road.
(3) So we're not even counting the dozens of different ethnic groups that are all Thai by citizenship.