How to quit your job and travel around the world

Day Two


Carole, Catherine and Maren in Ayutthaya at Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, built in 1357 and still active as a place of devotion.


Buddha images at Wat Yai Chai Mongkol.


View of Wat Phra Si Sanphet, which was built in 1503.


Detail from a Buddha at Wat Ratburana, built in 1424.

I think the photos from Ayuntthaya tell the story of the day. I went with the French sisters Carole and Maren by tuk tuk and public bus to this city about 1 1/2 hours north of the city. There are loads of Wat ruins there and it's pretty amazing. I realized after shooting about 70 pictures, that there's nothing like your first Wat. First, for all Americans specifically, the time frame is so mind-bending. When you and I were barely specs in our immigrant forefathers' eyes, there were actve massive temples here in Thailand.

The Wats here date to between the 14th and early 16th centuries. In its heyday there was so much gold on the temples you could see the city shining in the sun from miles away. It was pretty awesome and awe-inspiring.

Khao San Road, around 11 p.m., Feb. 16. Bangkok's backpacker's ghetto.

My new best friend.

Me at the Grand Palace.


I arrived on Thursday aruond 4:30 p.m. after the 17 hour flight from New York. Thai Airways, by the way, is great. I think the xanax/ambien kicked in somewhere over Greenland and wore off as we were crossing Burma. I caught some Bad News Bears in tehre too. The immigration line took forever, but made friends with an Iranian-American filmmaker who's showing at the Bangkok Film Festival and who then later turned up at my guest lodge. Took a taxi (300 bhat) to the Shanti Lodge and was vaguely unsettled that I had (am) to stay in the dorm. But it's dirt cheap - like $4 a night (150 bhat). Anyway, I was too amped to really do anything other than sponge off and rest for about 20 minutes on my bunk.

Drinking a beer and eating a sandwich in the restaurant I reencountered the filmmaker and two other women, French sisters. We decided to do what every backpacker does on their first night in Bangkok: head to Khao San Road. It's like Haight Street meets St. Mark's Place meets Bladerunner. It's completely disturbing and slightly enthralling. Loads of farang (foreigners), young and sunburnt carrying huge bottles of beer, more than a handfull of complete junked out burnouts, beefed up 50 year-old-men and their Thai girlfriends, pushers asking you if you like "Ping pong pussy" and Japanese tourists getting dreadlocks. After an hour or so of navigating it all I came back to vainly attempt to sleep in my dorm room. For the record, it's really effing hot here. Really, really hot. I am not sure if it's always this crowded but I am having an impossible time getting a room (nevermind with AC) for myself and am stuck in the backpack ghetto which has two fans. It's hot.

Morning came and I decided, again, to do what every person does here their first day: head to the opulant Grand Palace, which looked walking distance on my map, but was not. I had to sprint across the expressway in some kind of Asian frogger game. Totally sketchy. The Palace is basically the Versailles of Thailand. Loads of gilt temples, the story of Rama painted on the walls and then there's the Emerald Buddha, which you cannot photograph. Just less than two feet tall, they have built this huge shrine around the Jade figure and the room was packed with monks and Thai people kowtowing along with assorted tourist groups. It dates back to the 15th century and was found in Chang Mae.

The Shanti Lodge is near a school and there are all these street stalls selling food at lunch time. I have to admit that I was feeling intimidated by groups of squeeling school girls and opted for the one restaurant with photos. That one with the white rice! I pointed! It worked! A meal arrived and it all came to 30 bhat, which is less than a dollar. I ate that while staring at a massive poster of Jacques and Bernadette Chirac, who I guess are visiting the country. That was weird.

So now I am torn between staying here at the Shanti, which is clean and safe and seems to have nice people runnign and staying here, but I am in the backpacker dorm hole - or trying to find my own AC room in another part of town. Did I mention that it's hot as hell here in Bangkok? To be continued ...

Exploded Pack View, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 12:48 a.m.
Yes, this all fits into a package about the size (American sizing) of a breadbox.

View from my living room window. Blizzard 2006.
Sunday morning, 11:30 a.m., Feb. 12.