Our recent trip to Bankok was, quite simply, amazing! We went out to some wonderful restaurants, ate incredible street food, enjoyed massages nearly every day for around $10/hr, toured exquisite Buddhist temples, and took in the scenery along a never ending expanse of canals from long tail boats. Thailand was a remarkable mixture of rugged, cultural experiences and beautiful upscale living. The Thai people were very friendly, and helped to make our stay a memorable one.
We stayed on the 55th floor at the Lebua Tower hotel, which just so happens to be the hotel at which The Hangover 2 was filmed. The staff was completely over the top nice, and they all loved to interact with Thumper. It wasn't long before he was saying, "Kap kun krap!" and "Sawatdee krap!" which is thank you, and hello/goodbye, respectively, for a male speaker in Thai. We arranged a date night, using a baby sitter provided by the hotel, and Legs and I got to enjoy a fabulous dinner on the 52 floor outdoor restaurant. The view from our table of Bangkok and the river was breathtaking.
All of that relaxation and adventurous traveler spirit was soon smashed to pieces when we returned to good ol' Hyderabad. The other day I had taken Thumper to a birthday party for one of his classmates, and I was surprised to see a quaint little outdoor setting of straw bales, large paper mache animals, and more toddler toys than I could count. I thought, "This looks like my kind of birthday party." However, it seems like always is the case, India manages to come so close to awesome, and then someone said, "Meh, this'll do."
As Thumper ran around playing, I realized that not all of the animals were fake. There, terrified for their lives, caught in a gaggle of screaming toddlers were three live chickens, each with about a 4 foot length of ribbon tied around one leg. Kids were grabbing the 'leashes' and tugging, yanking, and swinging the chickens around as they pleased. The kids were laughing hysterically, the parents smiled in amusement, and some of the nannies even got in on the fun. I just couldn't bring myself to understand how no one there cared about what they were doing to those poor little animals. Even Thumper looked upset at seeing the chickens so clearly distressed.
After leaving the party we were stopped at an intersection and I heard a loud thumping on the car door. I looked over to see an older man hitting our car with a stick. I looked at him trying to convey with my facial expression that I'd like him to stop, and he held out his hand asking for money. I shook my head no; however, I'm not really sure if it was in disbelief that this was his strategy for getting money, or if I was genuinely telling him, "No, not today sir." I looked at our driver, both of us shared a light chuckle, and then back at the intersection only to hear the banging again. This time I tried to put on my mean face and shook my head no again, but he just put out his hand and gave me the same deer-in-the-headlights look. As soon as I looked away again, there was the banging on the door. This time I skipped the mean face and got out of the car, snatched the stick from his hands, and threw it out into the intersection. Without a word, I got back in the car, the police officer in the intersection directing traffic waved us on, and we drove away.
Happy Travels!
Pancho
We stayed on the 55th floor at the Lebua Tower hotel, which just so happens to be the hotel at which The Hangover 2 was filmed. The staff was completely over the top nice, and they all loved to interact with Thumper. It wasn't long before he was saying, "Kap kun krap!" and "Sawatdee krap!" which is thank you, and hello/goodbye, respectively, for a male speaker in Thai. We arranged a date night, using a baby sitter provided by the hotel, and Legs and I got to enjoy a fabulous dinner on the 52 floor outdoor restaurant. The view from our table of Bangkok and the river was breathtaking.
All of that relaxation and adventurous traveler spirit was soon smashed to pieces when we returned to good ol' Hyderabad. The other day I had taken Thumper to a birthday party for one of his classmates, and I was surprised to see a quaint little outdoor setting of straw bales, large paper mache animals, and more toddler toys than I could count. I thought, "This looks like my kind of birthday party." However, it seems like always is the case, India manages to come so close to awesome, and then someone said, "Meh, this'll do."
As Thumper ran around playing, I realized that not all of the animals were fake. There, terrified for their lives, caught in a gaggle of screaming toddlers were three live chickens, each with about a 4 foot length of ribbon tied around one leg. Kids were grabbing the 'leashes' and tugging, yanking, and swinging the chickens around as they pleased. The kids were laughing hysterically, the parents smiled in amusement, and some of the nannies even got in on the fun. I just couldn't bring myself to understand how no one there cared about what they were doing to those poor little animals. Even Thumper looked upset at seeing the chickens so clearly distressed.
After leaving the party we were stopped at an intersection and I heard a loud thumping on the car door. I looked over to see an older man hitting our car with a stick. I looked at him trying to convey with my facial expression that I'd like him to stop, and he held out his hand asking for money. I shook my head no; however, I'm not really sure if it was in disbelief that this was his strategy for getting money, or if I was genuinely telling him, "No, not today sir." I looked at our driver, both of us shared a light chuckle, and then back at the intersection only to hear the banging again. This time I tried to put on my mean face and shook my head no again, but he just put out his hand and gave me the same deer-in-the-headlights look. As soon as I looked away again, there was the banging on the door. This time I skipped the mean face and got out of the car, snatched the stick from his hands, and threw it out into the intersection. Without a word, I got back in the car, the police officer in the intersection directing traffic waved us on, and we drove away.
Happy Travels!
Pancho
