Yesterday was another amazing thai day. The girls and I walked all over from ten in the morning until about 6 or 7 at night. We saw the Reclining Buddha and visited an amazing Wat (Monastery). We tried really hard to make it to the Grand Palace but it closed at three and we got there at 3:05. Another day I suppose. Overall it wasn't the most eventful day ever but i know that none of us ever took our goofy smiles off of our faces.
My mom emailed me yesterday and something she said has been stuck in my mind since yesterday morning, "It is weird to think that you are on an opposite schedule than us. I'm headed to bed on this Wednesday evening and you are already past lunch on Thursday. Are you realizing how many people are on this earth that we have no idea exist? Weird to think about that, but God knows them all and loves them all"
The question that I have is one of interconnectivity, I've never been closer (and I'm still not close at all) to realizing the actual size of the world than I am now, surrounded by 65 million people. I only know 2 out of those 65 million and will probably only meet about a hundred of them. Each one of these people have had a childhood, and each one of them has memories, a mother, a father, maybe a dog, maybe a home, maybe not. Seemingly randomly we were born where we were, with the advantages and disadvantages that come with who our family is, how much money they have, what they believe in, and all the other endlessly complicated factors that play into our own individuality and who we are as people. Every single person in this gigantic city has the same set of factors that are infinitely important and complicated to them. How is this possible? How have I become so ingrained with an inflated sense of self-purpose and worth that I forget that I am no different then the woman selling fruit on the streets of Bangkok or the leper in the camps of Kolkata? Does this apply to everyone or is it just me that thinks this way? Are we all really connected to each other or are we randomly placed where we are with our desires and passions and hopes and dreams? My heart leans towards the former.
This isn't really the place for philosophical discussion but it's something that my mind won't let me stop thinking about. And this is MY blog so I figure I can try and get some of the people who are reading this thinking the same things I am. :D
Back to Bangkok: Today the plans are to hit up the zoo and try our hardest to pet some tigers and ride some elephants. We might try to be brave and take a tuk-tuk ride to the zoo but we're a little afraid of getting ripped off. A tuk-tuk is a motorcycle contraption with three wheels and a three-seat bench on the back with a little covering that goes over where the passengers sit, think of it as a motorcycle taxi. Tuk-tuk drivers are the most insanely persistent people in the entire world. You can't walk more than 15 feet on the street without someone saying, "HELLO! Welcome to Bangkok! Where you from? Where going? Faster! Here tuk-tuk faster than walking. Get in, Get in, 10 baht each! Cheapest tuk-tuk." And from everything we read if a driver tells you 10 baht each you'll either end up paying 50-100 baht each or taken on a mini tour of Bangkok, visiting every tailor shop and massage parlor in between and you're not able to leave until you buy something. So Emily, Michelle, and I have come up with a few ways of getting them to leave us alone:
A. Act like you're not from the U.S., the little bit of french that I retained from school this year has been extremely helpful in these situations although a few of the drivers are tri-lingual and my French really isn't that good.
B. Just ignore them. This is the least effective of our tactics because they will walk in front of you or just keep following you until you say something back then it's impossible to get out of the conversation.
C. (My personal favorite) Start screaming in jibberish until they're scared enough or say, "I don't understand?!?" Then you are automatically the least important person on the street to them because they know they aren't getting money out of you. My favorite conversation so far was "TUK-TUK! here look here!"
"AY papi! I left my calzones in france, no pui poo paaaa! Do you have an olive and tiger sandwich?"
"Wha?" (very confused look on the driver's face)
Then we turned, laughed, and skipped away back to our hostel.
I put some pictures up on flickr, enjoy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27395614@N03/sets/72157622219004137/
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