Thailand

Our ship arrived in the Laem Chabang area of Thailand at 8 in the morning on October 4th. I was so tired that I didn’t get up to watch the ship come into port as I usually do, and knowing that we were coming into a pretty industrial port I decided to catch more zzzs instead. The original fall voyage itinerary included a stop in Burma, but given the tumultuous civil unrest there, the decision was made at some point over the summer for us to sail to Thailand instead. Laem Chabang is a good two and a half hours away from Bangkok, the first stop for many people on the voyage were heading because they were catching flights to a bunch of different Thai islands. The most popular location was Phuket, which attracted many students because of its beautiful beaches and its home to the Half Moon Party. The Half Moon party is known for readily available live music, alcohol, and drugs. A child of the 70’s myself, I felt no need to relive the counterculture of my infancy. Been there, done that.

Instead, it seemed like a much better idea to head to Bangkok with my friend, Paul. Semester at Sea sponsored buses for $29/one-way bringing us right into the city of Bangkok. I have to confess that the first thing I did when we got to Bangkok was enjoy a caramel macchiato from Starbuck’s. Starbuck’s coffee shops were everywhere around the Central World Plaza (a high-end mall) where we were dropped off and I drank my coffee (which they served in a real mug) like I was at the last supper. After a quick trip on the subway train, which was super easy to negotiate, we ended up at the hotel where some of our coworkers were already lounging in luxury. We figured that at least if we couldn’t afford such luxury, we’d enjoy as much luxury as they were willing to share with us. Since the immigration process took an extremely long time on the ship, and we were arriving in Bangkok much later than originally planned, we decided to take Anna and Augusto up on their offer to go to the hotel buffet. This buffet is not related in any shape or form to Ponderosa, Sizzler, or Marisa’s all-time favorite, The Golden Corral. It was out of this world. They had traditional Thai dishes and Western dishes. I enjoyed two made-to-order lobster tails. Two! And noodles! And sushi! And brownies! And ice-cream! After dinner, we had to be forklifted out of the restaurant. Paul and I quickly secured a hotel reservation nearby (vetoing places with features like “torture chamber beds,” “shared bathrooms,” and “prostitution is frowned upon here.”)
The four us then all met up for a Thai foot massage, which produced a euphoria akin to the feeling one gets when one finishes one’s dissertation, realizes that one’s salary will soon be quadrupled, or hears the news that David Beckham is leaving Posh for a certain 28-year-old grad student named Alexis who lives in Charlottesville. Since none of these things apply to me, as of yet, I am willing to devote the rest of my life to Thai foot massages, which run 250 bot or roughly eight US dollars. After an hour’s work on our feet, neck, and shoulders we were all asleep in our massage chairs and called it a day not long there after (it was about midnight when we left the massage parlor).
The next day we headed to the multi-building Wat Phra Kaew compound or Temple of the Emerald Buddha (which is, in fact, probably made of jasper quartz and not emerald at all). The Buddha, who cannot be photographed, first appeared in the 15th century, although it is not known who sculpted his image. In viewing the Buddha one also has to be extremely careful to turn your feet away from him and remember to cross your legs at the knees as to not show the soles of your feet to the Buddhas, since Thais believe feet are extremely dirty parts of the body. Apparently, the Buddha has changed location many times throughout his physical existence, but when he came to Bangkok in 1782, the King ordered him two robes made for both the hot and rainy season. Another ruler added a robe for the cold season. These robes are still changed at the beginning of each season by the king himself. The king, by the way, is much beloved in Thailand. He is 80-years-old and has ruled for 60 years. Many Thais were wearing golden bracelets similar to Lance’s Live Strong bracelets that are inscribed with Long Live the King. Every Monday Thais also wear golden yellow (considered a royal color) shirts to show their support for the king. Everyone we talked to from tuk tuk drivers, to people on the street, to waiters spoke fondly about the king. Respect for the king and country is one of the reasons why the 1956 movie musical, The King and I, is banned in Thailand. The 1999 Jodie Foster movie, Anna and the King, is also banned since the Thai government views these movies as laden with historical inaccuracies.

If there are words to describe the magnificence and intricacy of the Emerald Buddha temple, I don’t know what they are.


The more than 100 buildings on the grounds were painstakingly covered from their foundations to their gilded roofs in glassy, colored mosaic pieces.

The ornate detail of the architecture and the bold colors of the mosaic patterns adorning the temple was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before; I can’t imagine the minds that came together to build the vision for such a great temple.

Nor can I imagine all of the human power that went into its construction. Kind of puts a dissertation in perspective. The inside of the buildings were no less impressive with extensive murals running from floor to vaulted ceiling depicting scenes from Thai royal history. The temple is, in fact, adjacent to the monarch’s former residence, The Grand Palace, which is now only used for special ceremonies and remains closed to the public.


After a leisurely tuk tuk (or open taxi ride around town--see the picture of Anna and August below) we stopped at a much smaller Buddhist temple, as well as a tailor shop, jewelry shop, and shopping center (the latter three stops were taken to by our drivers without our request; we found out later that they got gas vouchers each time they brought tourists to these shops). The afternoon of chauffeuring cost us 20 bot (or less than one US dollar); similar time spent by a NY taxi driver easily would have been around $100.

The next morning, both Paul and I (after some hotel pool time and going out time) boarded the subway train to the public bus station, where we paid 95 bot (roughly 3 US dollars) for the 2 ½ hour bus ride back to the ship. The bus station was so easy to negotiate and we had just enough time to run to 7-11 before we snoozed on the air conditioned ride home. Once at the Laem Chabang bus stop, which appeared to be just a white median line in the middle of a very busy highway we ran for our lives to a taxi and paid 200 bot (roughly $6.50 USD) for the 10 minute ride to the port. Both Paul and I had to return to the ship, me to fulfill my duties as duty dean, and Paul as resident director on duty. Typically in the middle of the port, the duty dean’s responsibilities are pretty minimal. However, sometimes students find themselves in trouble and need to go to the hospital or lose their passports and need to go to the embassy or make other, more creative, poor choices that are too numerous to mention here. While my two days of duty required me to stay within one hour of the ship and take a ship cell phone with me at all times (you know how many of you I wanted to call; it’s like giving a drug addict being given her drug) I was able to explore Pattaya, which was about 30 minutes from the ship. Pattaya is known for its crowded beaches and its elephants. Pattaya is also known as the prostitution capital of Thailand. We walked through the town in broad daylight and noticed a large amount of old, unattractive White men with young, sometimes really young Thai women. This was not my favorite part. The good news was we happened upon a really cool park and I decided to work-out as instructed by the signs in the park:

Scary, I know!!! Look at that intensity!
We did eventually come to a golden Buddha at the end of our stroll through Pattaya,


as well as a hotel wine bar with amazing 360 degree view of the city.

From far away, Pattaya is beautiful.

Now, less you think I have nothing good to say about Pattaya, I will tell you about my time with my third favorite animal in Pattaya, the elephant (Mikey! the horse being the first and dregs who are REALLLLLL good being the second).

At the Pattaya elephant village, there are tons of elephants to feed bananas to (elephants eat 20% of the body weight a day so they need lots of bananas).

You can also ride the elephants. Some of our students opted to ride them during one of their four daily baths—yours truly decided to photograph the momentous occasion instead.

Unlike African elephants, only Asian male elephants have tusks.

Interacting with these gentle giants was such a unique experience—I loved how it felt to have their trunks vacuum up the bananas.

I also loved telling the student who called to tell me that she went swimming with her passport and ruined her Thai visa that I was riding an elephant and would need to call her back later.


And should any of you think that Paul and are planning to run off to Bangkok and elope anytime soon (Mom! This means you), I want you to know that Paul was the out and proud organizer behind the ship’s observance of The U.S.’s National Coming Out Day. This event, held on October 11th, intends to increase awareness and understanding for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community and their allies. To show our support on the ship we made safe zone stickers to hang on our doors.

While there was no Joy Pugh from UVa here to make the day’s events truly stellar, I can tell you that the majority of people on the ship participated. It was wonderful to see how accepting this generation is of the LGBT population.

After a stop in Singapore to hook up to a barge for refueling, we arrive in Chennai, India. We have seven days at sea between these two ports, and the deadline for students to withdraw from a class occurs the day prior to docking, so I have a feeling that I’ll be pretty busy between now and then. Love to you all! Happy Fall!