kanchanaburi

To take advantage of my last long weekend in Bangkok, we went to Kanchanaburi. As we were only taking the bus, we left M's place at 6:30am and got to the Southern Bus Terminal at 7:30. Just like any other long weekend, people were packed like sardines - long lines at the ticket booths and people waiting at the bus docks woke up our systems. By 7:45, we boarded the bus, marking the start of our 3-hour trip to the River Kwai Resotel.

We got to the Kanchanaburi bus station in 2 hours, and were greeted by songtaew drivers eager to get passengers. We hired one old driver who looked trustworthy and told him to bring us to Thong Pa Phum, where the resort's boat was docked. We didn't realize how far it was - 120+ km away from Kanchanaburi - it took us another hour just to get to the small dock. No wonder the driver said that 500 Baht (for the whole songtaew) was the standard rate!

The resort's long-tail boat took us on a 10-minute ride along the River Kwai. When we got to the resort's pier, we were impressed by the sheer beauty of the view - 2 mountains divided by a river, and a beautiful resort with a rustic ambience. The resort's website does not do them justice - you have to experience the stillness and closeness to nature it offers.

After settling into our rooms and a hearty lunch, we walked around the resort and followed the trail to Lawa Cave. The trail itself was a path worthy of pictures since plants, flowers, shrubs, and herbs were in abundance. Apparently, Lawa Cave was in a small national park so we had to pay a fee at the entrance of the park. 100 steps (going uphill) later was the entrance to the cave. Although dark and damp, the deeper parts of the cave proved to be awesome. Curtain-like stalactites created odd walls and pillars that seemed to hold pieces of history - it felt like a scene fresh out of a Tolkien novel. The cave had big pockets which felt like a big empty room, and sometimes small pathways reminiscent of secret passageways in big houses. (I obviously watch way too much TV.) To top it all off, there were about a hundred SLEEPING bats in one part. I did not dare take a picture, for fear of waking up those ugly creepy things. The photos we took do not convey the beauty of the stalactites - much like seeing frozen waterfalls in Banff... you have to discover the beauty yourself. (Plus, it was dark so my camera could not take pictures properly.)

After breakfast, we rented mountain bikes and took the small, paved road at the back of the resort. Although it was a small road leading to the main highway (we assumed so since there were a few cars going up to the cave), the scenery was nonetheless breathtaking. We were practically biking thru a meadow filled with trees on both sides, and a view of other mountains in front of us. Getting on a bike again took me back to my younger years when riding bikes under the hot sun was an everyday activity. I loved the sound of the bike's tires gripping the gravel and pebbles, and its gentle hum while we were going downhill.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back. After lunch we made our way back to the concrete, crowded, and polluted streets of Bangkok, armed with a healthy dose of tranquility and calm to last us (or them) til the next long weekend. As for me, it was a fitting goodbye to fun long weekends in Thailand, and a gentle reminder that there will always be memories and places to come back to when the right time comes.

discovering asia's pop culture

In college, I had a Film class that I truly enjoyed. Even if it was a 3-hour class on a Wednesday, I looked forward to it since all we did was watch movies. Our professor showed us a buffet of movies - from Citizen Kane to other Asian movies. After that semester, I was hooked on cultural films.

My move to Bangkok has not only widened my perspective on Asia, but has also given me appreciation of the unique facets of each culture. No wonder Europeans think that Asia is so exotic. Even if I don't understand Thai, I regularly channel-hop to watch interesting shows and ads (deciphering what they mean is another story altogether).

In the past 2 years, I have been able to watch and truly enjoy a few Asian pop culture pieces that may even outdo their Hollywood pop counterparts. Of course these pieces cannot compare to the more visually-poetic French-Vietnam piece "Scent of Green Papaya" or Thailand's sexually-disturbing Jan Dara... that would be like comparing a La Vie En Rose with The Princess Diaries.

My Sassy Girl



Directed by: Kwak Jae-Yong
Starring: Cha Tae-Hyun, Jeon Ji-Hyun

The first half of this movie was a bit slow - I was tempted to either give up on it or fast forward it at the very least. But the slow development was quite worth it - after 30 minutes, the story takes an interesting turn and ends beautifully with dramatic cinematography. The theme song is also kilig-worthy, although it's sung in Korean.


Love Letter


I tried watching this Korean series on local TV, ergo it was dubbed in Thai. I got the story mixed up so everytime it was shown on TV, I'd ask my co-workers what the story was about. I am Korea-ignorant so I was surprised to see that the Catholic faith is stong there. It's a very welcome change from pinoy dramas that are full of screaming, crying, and sabunutan.

Meteor Garden


Now who doesn't recognize Meteor Garden? I had already moved to Bangkok when this series consumed the Philippines so I did not understand why virtually everyone liked F4. They were on Thailand's billboards and buses but I didn't think they looked cute in any angle. So when R lent me the full series, I went on a Meteor Garden marathon and began to understand why girls are so gung-ho about them. (I do understand the fondness for those 4 boys but I'm definitely not about to run to the nearest bookstore to buy a special F4 magazine, nor am I crazy enough to shell out a huge amount of money to watch them perform live.)

The plot and locations used in Meteor Garden are impressive. Although it has a lot of cliche in it - bus chasing, saving your damsel-in-distress, poor girl rich guy - it has that kilig factor that all of us are looking for. I loved the theme song, and liked it even more when I found the English translation to it.

Watching Asian movies or soaps are definitely better than otherwise-tiring pinoy plots. Mainstream Philippine movies like the Mano Po series or Tito, Vic & Joey movies - suck the artistry out of cinema. Let's just hope there are budding Lino Brockas out there who can produce better films with less sampalan, iyakan, at sabunutan.

one month to go!

Only 4 weekends to go in Bangkok and so many things to do! Yikes, where did the time go? Who would have known I'd get nostaligic after 2 1/2 years? I went here in 2001 without knowing anyone or anything about Thailand... and now that I'm leaving it feels like I'm uprooting a big part of myself.

But before I go full throttle into my sentiments...

- throw/return/give away things- pack and ship at least half my stuff by Nov. 13
- say goodbye to Chatuchak (sniff, sniff!)
- clear out my desk before my replacement at work gets here
- kanchanaburi weekend (oct. 23-24): elephant trek and canoeing
- look for work in Manila
- print and give out our Save The Date cards
- say goodbye to the kids in CCD
- say thank you to the pseudo aunts and uncles who have checked on me during my stay here

Ugh, the mere thought of packing makes me sneeze.

what it's like at the top

Distil is definitely one of Bangkok's Must-Try Bars. Located at the 64th floor (the elevator was an ear-popping ride especially for sinus-challenged me), it shares the floor with Sirocco and Mezalluna. The view was breathtaking, and the ambience definitely worth the trip and make-up.

Separating Distil from Sirocco are glass walls and a glass door so we easily slipped into Sirocco to take in the view. Fortunately, it was not a rainy night so we had a 360 degree view of the city - although it had a grey tint since Bangkok's pollution never really clears up.

Distil had great music but expensive drinks. At 350+ for a martini, or 150+ for a cup of tea - it was insane - we must have paid for the view and the furniture. The resident DJ provided good music - not the kind that's too loud for Friday chit-chat, but loud enough to be appreciated by nodding your head to the beat.

conquering the wall

I never thought wall climbing was such a difficult sport. We're signing up for a beginner's rock climbing course in Petchaburi or Lopburi, and one of the perks is we get to practice on a wall in Imperial Ladprao. We probably are gluttons for public humiliation -- Imperial Ladprao is a mall frequented by locals (translation: no English signs, foreigners, or anything remotely farang here), and the wall we had to climb was right in the middle of the mall.

I used to not understand the wall climbers of Power Up when they had a demo wall at the Alabang Town Center a few years ago. I thought they were all crazy to even try something in a public place. Little did I know I'd have the balls to do the same thing. Good thing is, chances of me bumping into some I know here are slim to none. Whew!

Climbing in itself was manageable, but staying on one spot while figuring out the next step was something else. I didn't reach the top though, was 2 meters away but gave up when I couldn't get any higher because my hands were simply too slippery to hold on. Turns out I was holding on to the holds with the wrong grip, thus exerting too much effort on the wrong thing. Oh well, not too bad for a first-timer. The 2 girls who were helping us - Piyao and Dee - were such inspiring climbers because they would go up and down effortlessly. They said that we weren't so hopeless, and with a few more Sundays before our real climb, we'd be able to hack it.

Tiring as it was, we're all going back there on Sunday... minus the sore muscles and long fingernails of course.

Mystique at Sukhumvit Soi 31

Bangkok's nightlife sadly falls short of a Pinoy's expectations. No Greenbelt 3, Eastwood, or Fort here. Gimmicks here consist mostly of a bottle of whisky, slapstic-humor-cracking kratoey (lady-boys), and Thai bands (if you're lucky, they might even try their very best to sing in English). But for the boys, of course there are a lot of other options -- massage parlors, girly bars, and prostitutes are in abundance here.

Thais go out in full sexy battlegear when they go out, but like handpainted Faberge eggs, that's all they're good at -- aesthetics. Dancing or even simply swaying to the music apparently isn't an innate talent in this part of Asia. What's worse, the music that most pubs (bars are commonly called pubs by locals) play are the ones which are considered danceable by the locals, so I Will Survive and Out Of Reach (circa 2000) are still part of the Top Ten list (along with songs by Blue or any other boy band). But it's not that bad. There are places that are ok enough to go to like Bed, Q Bar, Tapas, Riva's (Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit), Hazara's (Face Bar), and a newbie to my list: Mystique.

We went to Mystique last weekend and it was a good option for a Saturday night gimmick. The place (Soi 31) is easy enough to locate, but Mystique itself is a bit of a challenge - I was beginning to wonder if part of the bar's "mystique" was its location. It took me a good 3 times circling the area, but it was all worth it. The place was quirky and - as in all things in Thailand - sexy. The cover charge was a bit steep at 650 baht, but since we don't really go clubbing that often, it was worth the experience. Since I got there earlier than my friends did, I was greeted by a kratoey with curly locks and a cowboy hat (it would have looked like a girl if not for its stubble!). On the ground level was the house/latino music that was pretty cool, although this was also the floor where single men looked like they were on the prowl for women. So up we went to the 2nd floor where 2 young caucasian DJs were playing R&B. The crowd on this floor were relatively younger, and they obviously went there for the music, not necessarily to bring someone home. I think bars here don't get better than Mystique - good music, good ventilation, and no hookers in sight. It's definitely one of Bangkok's better bars - don't forget your ID!