Easy living: beach, pool, hammock, book.

Day 62 – Day 65, 20-23/4/2012

Time for a change in islands. In the morning I took a ferry from Koh Tao to Koh Phangan. About 2 hours and we were there. I had booked a hotel in a quiet beach with a swimming pool – that was my main goal: beach, pool, hammock, book. An idea that I could do a bit of diving had also popped in my mind. I took a moto-taxi from the pier to the hotel, and in the first 2 minutes I already regretted it – I started remembering all the stories about Koh Phangan’s road quality and bike accidents, and I knew – if we fall, there’s no diving for me. We reached safely. But Koh Phangan turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected – and that’s a place to explore with a scooter. If I was not afraid to learn how to ride a scooter and had more time on the island, I would certainly go on about exploring it.

The hotel was fine, I had a nice bungalow, a hammock, and the pool was big enough – 3 m deep, so it was also used for diving. There was a dive shop next to the hotel – Reefers, and I went to talk to them about fundives. They were about to go diving on the next day to Sail Rock – one of the best places on the east coast of Thailand. I would go diving on the next day.

The rest of the day I spent lazing in and around the pool with my book, watching a sunset (all in all – I had 8 sunsets on the 2 islands, because I made sure I’m staying on the west side of both of them). I was staying in the North of Haad Yao beach – it indeed was beautiful! White sand, not too many people, nice restaurants – and for the 4 days I would be staying in Koh Phangan I had no need to leave this little beach.

That night there was the big Black Moon party on the island, so almost all the people from my hotel went there. I had no wish of partying, neither I wanted to meet any people. And I had to be in the diveshop at 7.30 next morning, so no for me. As I heard later, the party had not been good anyway.

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Next day early in the morning I was in the dive shop and we set off for diving. The company was awesome! There were not many people going for the dive – I and 2 Germans for the fundive, and the rest were instructors, divemasters and divemaster trainees. We were diving with Dean, a divemaster trainee and an awesome person with great travel trips for the whole of SE Asia! There was a divemaster with us who was assessing him – as leading this dive was part of Dean’s training. Sail Rock is a lone rock in the middle of the ocean – around it there is just water, so it is like a magnet for all the fish, and that much fish I hadn’t seen in Koh Tao! It was just amazing! We were having a great dive. After a rest and a lunch we went for the 2nd dive, this time we went down to 18 m, then went up through a chimney-like hole in the rock up to 12 m, swam more, went again through the chimney to 6m, and then went up. The amount of fish we saw was incredible! Angelfish, batfish, barracudas, triggerfish, groupers, giant moray eal. There had been a whale shark some days ago, but we didn’t see it. On the one hand I’m sad, on the other – I’m happy. I really really want to see it, but I think if I had met it on that day, I probably would have hyperventilated and forgotten how to breath from the excitement. If I come back to Koh Phangan, I’m diving with these guys again! And if I continue diving during this trip, then it will be thanks to the encouragement from these people!

Apart from the diving trip, the rest of my days were same same - alternating between the swimming pool and beach, and hammock, and book, and having an occasional massage on the beach, and watching sunsets. The best part of my trip so far. Beach is the place to be for me. I have no idea how 8 days on the islands can pass so quickly. After my 8th sunset it was time to leave – I took a taxi (this time not a motorbike, but a car; but to compensate for the safety I could feel that the driver was not particularly sober) to the main town and I was taking a night ferry to the mainland. I had heard stories that the night boat feels a lot like a human traffickers’ boat, but it was not bad – the mattresses were not too soft, but I had a nice sleep.

However. I felt an incredible amount of sadness when leaving the islands. I wish I could have stayed longer. In fact, at that point I already felt like I could be finishing my trip – I had had an awesome and equally exiting and relaxing week, my tan was of a fine level, I was satisfied with my journey – I could as well go home now, and start planning the next trip to Thailand already.

Among the fish in the Turtle Island

Day 58 – Day 61, 16-19/4/2012

At 5am on Monday morning we had arrived in Chumphon, I got my ticket for the ferry, got transferred to the pier and at 7am I was already on the way to Koh Tao – the Turtle Island. It’s one of the 3 main islands on the east coast, along with Koh Phangan and Koh Samui. Koh Tao is world-known for scuba diving – it’s the cheapest place in Thailand to become a certified diver.

I don’t know what had come up on me – before I started my travelling, I had put on my “bucket list” to try snorkeling, but I never even dreamt of trying scuba diving. I didn’t even consider Koh Tao. Then I heard of one friend going scuba diving, then another, and I decided – why not? Why not give it a try? So I enrolled in a diving course. Yes, I who don’t like swimming in places where I cannot reach the bottom. I enrolled in a scuba diving course that would let me go 18 metres deep in the ocean. That’s a 6-floor building, right?

So my diving company picked me up at the pier, I did the paperwork after I had surprised the guys in the dive shop who were expecting a Zane, as in – a guy, not me. I had a big breakfast with potatoes (the meditation course and lack of potatoes still had it’s impact on me), I had time for beach, enough time to finally break my havaianas, which had served me good since Cascais (I know, 5 years for a flip-flop is an eternity, but why, why did it have to happen now?), buy new “original” havaianas for 5 dollars (and I already feel them falling apart).

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Then in late afternoon we had the first classroom session for diving – watching videos and doing quizzes with the theory part for diving, and man, how cheesy they can be! PADI is an American company and the educational videos haven’t been changed in a decade. So it’s cheesy in a very american way. I think I’ve memorized it for ever – that diving is all about “meeting people, going places, doing things”. I was taking the course with a guy from Canada, and we could have a good laugh about the very american style of teaching basics of diving. Nevertheless, I started to be a bit afraid of actually going in the pool with the gear on the next day.

As I still needed time to adjust to normal sleeping schedule after the meditation, I was dead at 10pm already. To be fair, now, even a few weeks after the meditation, I’m still waking up at 6am every day and then forcing myself to go and sleep again. In the evenings it’s easier, I can stay awake till 2am, but oh too often I’m dead exhausted already at 11pm. But this I think is more the case of being exhausted by travelling instead of a messed up sleep pattern.

Day 2 of scuba training. In the morning we had a training session in a swimming pool – to learn the first basic skills needed for scuba diving. Though it was fun to learn how to assemble all the gear and have it on me, and being underwater and breathing through the regulator was not difficult, I discovered a new thing about myself – which is that I cannot stand water in my nose. After having spent too many days meditating and breathing only through nose, it was not easy to switch to breathing through mouth only, and I struggled to keep using my nose, even though I know it is not possible with the mask on my face.

But when we had to learn how to flood the mask and clear it underwater, and then take the mask off and put it back – I just couldn’t do it. Not possible, madam. I had water in my nose, started choking and panicking, and I just couldn’t do it. No, I could do it, but I couldn’t do it confidently enough. How stupid is it, no? We ended up taking too much time, and couldn’t learn all the skills we needed to cover, plus at one point I just panicked and went straight to the surface from the bottom of the 3 metre pool. I perfectly know that if I would ever fancy doing that when I’m actually diving, I could do a looooot of harm to my health, but at that point I did not think, I just panicked.

To add to this, finally the 10 days of silence kicked in and I started talking all the time, asking a gazillion of questions and just bubbling pure nonsense, and I know how annoying I was – but I couldn’t shut up. My instructor Zac is one of the most patient people I’ve met and even if he was annoyed, he didn’t show too much of it, and he didn’t give up. He has trained hundreds of people and only 1 person hasn’t been able to finish the course – he was sure that I wouldn’t be the 2nd one. I was not so confident though.

Later we went back to the classroom for the rest of the videos and quizzes, and to take an exam. Exam was very easy, but it was quite funny to realize I’ve passed the exam and I’m still struggling to take off my mask in the water.

Day 3 of scuba training. In the morning I had a plan: I will learn the mask skills before we go out in the ocean. My instructor lent me his mask and snorkel and I went to the beach to learn how to clear my mask. And here came the second challenge – not only I had water in my nose, but there was some very salty water in my eyes. Plus, turned out that practicing this thing with a snorkel would be a lot more difficult, because I kept surfacing in the water, as I couldn’t go deep enough. So the time came for me to head to the dive shop for the open water dives – we were supposed to have 2 dives to 12 metres, and a session in shallow water before that to finish the skills we didn’t manage on the day before (or for me – to actually succeed in taking off the mask and putting it back). Imagine how confident I felt. But while waiting I met a girl from Sweden, who had done her Open Water certification a few years back, and she said she had the same issue – she couldn’t do the mask skills in the first training as well. Somehow she had managed to do it in the 2nd session, and now she’s a very good diver. That did inspire me a bit.

We set off in a small longtail boat, reached our diveboat and went in the ocean for some diving – other people were doing fun dives, and the 2 of us – our open water in the divespot Japanese Gardens. Then the next challenge came – I don’t know what had I expected, but turns out that to get in the water from the dive boat – you have to step in with a giant stride/jump in the water, with all your gear, straight from the boat. Then, standing on the side of the boat and looking at that amount of water under me – I suddenly started being afraid of water. When I finally jumped in, I didn’t die or drown as I had expected. Haha. We went for the shallow water and with some convincing I achieved the mask skills, and we both were allowed to do our 12 metre dives.

The next challenge. We started descending for the dive. And I could not equalize my ears. I was trying and trying, but I couldn’t get past 6 metres – it just hurt too much, and I had to go back to boat. When my instructor came back with my buddy from their 1st dive, he took me alone to see if there really were problems with my ears or that would pass. And with going super slowly I managed to descend. It hurt a lot during the first 5m, but once deeper – was not that difficult to equalize anymore. And what a world is down there! I was speechless when we came back. It’s like being in all those “Oceans” movies for real. Swimming in the schools of fish. Seeing all the colourful corals. Observing some bigger fish. It was awesome and I don’t have words to describe it! That first dive was so worth all the trouble and effort and panic I had gone through before.

In between the dives we had to learn how to put the equipment on us while in the water – taking off the BCD and putting it back. Man, I wish I never have to do it again.

We did the 2nd dive again down to 12 metres, and it was awesome as well. I don’t know all the names for what we saw, but that was a lovely parade of colours. I started believing that I would actually be able to finish the course. But that exhaustion the both of us had after this day – it’s impossible to describe! We weren’t underwater that long, neither were we deep, but I felt like I’m flattened to the ground.

Being on that island I could understand perfectly why so many westerners come to Thailand and never leave. The life and environment you can have there is close to my idea of paradise.

Day 4 of the scuba training. We had 2 dives to 18 metres in the afternoon. We went to Twins and White Rock and both of the dives went fine. Descending was again painful for the first metres, but then it got ok. Oh, and who knew that blood looks green while you are underwater? I had a nosebleed without realizing it – though I also could not understand how come I suddenly had something green inside my mask. Turns out that’s my blood. Green. On the last dive we again had to do the mask skills at 9m and 5m. I was so stressed. So was my instructor – I think he was thinking all the time that I would shoot up to the surface as I did in the pool. But I didn’t! I did the mask skills, and became certified to dive to 18 m with a buddy. So cool! The funny thing is – when I have to clear my mask while I’m actually diving – I can do it without much thinking. But at the very moment when the instructor tells me: ok, now you have to do it – I get stressed.

I had fallen in love with diving. As I was planning to leave Koh Tao on next day I did ask if I could go on a fun dive on the next day in the morning, but the boat was going to a deep place and I would not be allowed to dive there. One thing I know – I will come back to Koh Tao – there are too many cool dive spots that I haven’t seen. Oh, and the sad thing was that on that next day in that deep dive spot they actually met a whale shark – a beast 7 m long.

Back to the civilization

Day 57, 15/4/2012

My vipassana course ended in the morning of 15th and we left for BKK at 8am. We arrived there at about 2pm right in the middle of the last day of Songkran – the Thai New Year celebrations. It’s simple – all you need is a watergun and you can start splashing everyone else with water, plus some whitish powder – ok, it’s not as bad as Holi, because that powder seemed to be washable, but everyone gets soaked. Then there are trucks that cruise the streets and pour water on people from a hose. Yes. Sounds like fun. With the other foreign meditators we shared a taxi to get to the centre, and the driver refused to go to Khao San Road, because that is the place of the wildest celebrations. I was heading to the train station to leave my bag, find internet and potatoes, and it was kind of a safe area with just a few people with waterguns.

I left my bag, found internet after almost 2 weeks of no-internet and.. the world was the same as when I had left it for my mediation course. Then I decided I deserve a good coffee and thought of going to Silom – near the nice park I had seen in my first week, as I’d also seen a Starbucks there and some nice restaurants. Little did I know that Silom is as wild in Songkran as Khao San Road. As soon as I exited the metro, I regretted coming there. I had my laptop with me and my bag is certainly not waterproof. Getting soaked was not what I was afraid of – I could manage wet clothes or hair. Having a wet passport or laptop was the problem. So I ducked and ran, and hid, and maneuvered my way accross the street, but a few minutes and a few little buckets of water later on me, I realised I will not make it to Starbucks, nor will I find a nice restaurant in this mess. I had to shamefully retreat and go back to the train station.

Overall it felt as a great day for returning back to the civilization. I could not know how much I would miss normal life after the meditation course. It’s was time to head to the train and start my journey to the islands. I did not get an air-con train, so I had to make do with a fan. Which shouldn’t have been a problem, if not for the fact that the train coaches had their windows open to let the air in – and surprise surprise, here comes a bucketfull of water from Bangkokers as a Songkran gift.

The night was so hot, it was incredible! I think i sweated out some 3 litres, and it was so difficult to sleep. Also, for a change I had to get off the train in the middle of the journey instead of the final stop, so I was waking up all the time in fear of missing my stop. But I shouldn’t have worried about that, because the habit of waking up at 4am stuck with me for days after the meditation.

My inner peace, where are you?

Day 46 – Day 56, 4-14/4/2012

My attempt at vipassana meditation.

The primary reason why I decided to do a meditation course was because an Indian friend had advised me to do it and I was hoping that some meditation would help me to find my inner peace – or, if not that, then at least it would help me to get rid of the anger and bad temper I had developed in India. Initially I wanted to do the course in Dharamshala, but the centre was opening only in April – and then it was too late for me already. There are literary dozens of other centres in India, but I don’t think it would’ve worked for me – any peace I’d found would be lost on the way back from the centre to Delhi anyway. So I opted for Thailand, as it was the next on my itinerary.

Vipassana is an old teaching that has its roots in Buddhism, but it’s not connected to any religion, so anyone can practice it. It is usually organized in 10 day meditation courses, and yes, the best part – any form of communication if forbidden: no talking, no eye contact with other meditators, no internet, no mobiles, no books, nothing. Just meditating. The course is run on a donation basis – after completing the course, if a person feels the benefit from the teachings, (s)he donates for the next course. All valuables (and phones, etc) (and my earrings!) had to be deposited in the safety lockers (with all my training about human trafficking I had learnt one thing: never give your passport to anyone, ever! So… In the first 5 minutes in the centre I had already filled in the registration form and given away my passport. I only realized this in the middle of the course, when I was daydreaming of leaving early and realized that I cannot simply leave the centre as I had imagined – first, I’ve no idea which way Bangkok is and how to get there from the middle of the jungle, and second – I would have to ask permission for leaving, and beg them to give me my laptop and passport back. So much for the “eh, if I cannot stand the 10 day silence, I’ll just leave when I want”). A few additional things that had to be observed throughout the course, in addition to the silence, were: no killing (bloody ants!), no lies, no stealing, no sex, no drugs.

The daily schedule is as follows:

• 4am – wake up;
• 4.30-6.30am – meditation;
• 6.30-8am – breakfast and rest (nap) time;
• 8-11am – meditation;
• 11am-1pm – lunch and rest (nap) time;
• 1-5pm – meditation;
• 5-6pm – tea break and rest (nap) time;
• 6-7pm – meditation;
• 7-9pm – evening teachings from the teacher and meditation;
• 9.30pm – bed time.

The meditation mostly was run in sessions of 1 hour, then a 5 min break, and again 1 hour. Most of the meditation took place in the common hall – we were about 50-60 women and 20 men there; but sometimes you were allowed to meditate in your own room – for me this didn’t work, because then I’d just fall asleep.

I was doing my course in the west of Thailand, about 6 hours from BKK. The centre itself was a lovely place – with a hilly scenery around it, lots of trees (lots of complimentary insects come to that). Lots of birds and crickets – the symphony of this was really pleasant both during the meditation and sleep time. And lovely 4-inch bugs that you beg not to come in your room at night and kill you. There was also a maniacal squirrel – she tried murdering me with things she threw from atop of a tree. Twice.

During the course you are not allowed to leave the premises of the centre, but there was a small area for taking walks. We were staying in private rooms with private bathrooms – logistically it was organized a lot better than I had expected. Meals were all vegetarian – awesome! Thai vegetarian food, which meant having noodles for breakfast, but I soon got used to it. Lots of tofu. Lots of fresh fruit. I discovered that bananas can have a big seed in them (at first I thought there’s a naughty stone inside the banana, but no – it’s a seed). Many times I had no idea what I was eating, but mostly it tasted fine, except for the sweet dishes that sometimes were… salty? So much chili I hadn’t had in a while, and I was proud of myself for having spoonfuls of chili already for breakfast. No dairy, no fat – but mostly fibber and vitamins in the form of fresh and steamed veggies. I just wish, truly wish, that thais would have discovered potatoes. These 10 days was the longest time in my life when I had to survive without a single potato. The last days all I could think of was how I’d get back to Bangkok and eat fries. It seems credible that thai cuisine is more healthy than the Indian – here you get plenty of fresh or steamed veggies, while in India all street food has been deep-fried 3 times, but all other foods float in butter and fresh veggies can be eaten at your own risk. One goes to India to develop character and survival skills, but to Thailand – for easy living and mangoes.

Oh. And we had to wash our dishes after the meals. You mean, 3 times a day, for 10 days? Having had a maid in India and then mostly eating out, I had forgotten how it feels to do your own dishes on a regular basis.

We were only 6 foreigners – from Netherlands, Germany, Russia, USA, Philippines and I, so we always had the evening session separately from the thais with teachings in English.

Well, so far about the logistics. How about the meditation itself?

On day 0 of the meditation we took the vow of silence and had the first introduction to the teacher. Whilst there is an assistant teacher present throughout the course, the main teachings are done through audio and video from the main teacher Goenka. That’s an old and funny Indian/Burmese gentleman. What a voice he has. To get us in a “meditative” mood, meditation sessions would sometimes start, but always end with him chanting about wisdom and happiness in hindi – and I must say, it scared me at first. I was totally not expecting those weird noises that suddenly started. Thai people cannot go on without smiling, so I was eager to see how they’d act when no non-verbal communication is allowed. Turned out, all the ladies were like robots: no body language? Ok. We don’t smile anymore. It was we the foreigners, who seemed to be struggling with the no eye contact thing more than thais.

Day 1: if I was afraid of not being able to wake up in the morning for the meditation at 4.30am, I needn’t have worried about it as the bell was so loud, it was impossible to miss it. But staying awake – that was the biggest challenge. If I was afraid of the non-speaking part, then it proved to be a minor point, and I, in fact, enjoyed the silence. Staying awake and sitting cross-legged was the main problem. Thai people, I figured, are born cross-legged, because they could sit for an hour like buddhas without any visible effort. The foreigners kept twisting and turning every 15 minutes or so. Observe my breathing. Observe. Nothing else, just observe the breathing. Damn, that’s difficult with so many thoughts and trash on my mind.

Day 2: still observing my respiration. Thoughts keep wandering everywhere else but not to my breath. The Latvian in me has changed. Eating noodles with chili for breakfast – as non-latvian as it gets.

Day 3: I start occupying my mind with solving quadratic equations, practicing derivatives and multiplying matrixes, so I’d be able to get through the sitting. Also, I learn that I’m just a mass of bubbles. Hey, vipassana teachings go close to the idea of personality bubble we were practicing in my first year in University!

Day 4: On this day we are finally introduced to the vipassana practice – until then we’d been only observing our respiration with different techniques. Now, here comes a new thing, in addition to new meditation technique – for three times 1 hour every day we will have to meditate without changing our posture – no stretching, no adjusting to the pains or discomfort. Woohoo. With the American girl we, however, seem to be having a competition on who will be the first one to give up and change the posture. By the end of the day I suddenly feel specks of the peace I had observed in the Buddhists in Dharamshala. In myself. A bit, but it’s there. I wish I’d be able to preserve it.

Day 5: seems to be the toughest day so far. I cannot calm my thoughts, but I keep telling myself – when I get through this day, I’m halfway through – I can do this! Wait, who is stabbing me in my back? How come I suddenly have developed a sharp pain under my shoulder blade? Oh, you mean it happens because I’m trying to stay still for an hour? Oh, you want me to observe the pain and not react to it? Not possible, madam.

Day 6: I thought that the day before was tough? No, no. This is worse. I start considering leaving the course in the middle, but then I also realize that my valuables and passport are locked in the manager’s office, I’ve given a promise of staying till the end, and I’ve no idea how to get away from this voluntary imprisonment/monastery. All that’s left to do is stay and keep fighting with myself.

Day 7: thoughts are more balanced and I manage to keep them at bay and focus on the actual meditation. Finally I can meditate for longer than just a few breaths at a time. The one thought that stays with me from the teachings is – “this will also change”. No situation in our lives is permanent, everything will change. There was quite a lot of stories behind this, but the overall lesson is simple: everything changes, nothing is permanent. You are happy? It will change. You are in a setback? It will also change.

Day 8: as the end of the course is approaching, it becomes easier, but I so much want to know how the others are doing – I feel I’m the only one struggling with accomplishing what the teacher wants us to accomplish. But my inner peace is back, this time for longer whiles. What a wonderful feeling it is! I start being afraid that as soon as I’m out of this protected environment, the reality will kill it. But I’ve experienced it, so it means I have it in me, it just takes a lot of effort to dig it out.

Day 9: yet another truth from our teacher – how can we hope to end our misery if we want the whole world to change, except for ourselves. I’ve given up striving for enlightenment (haha), as I feel I’m way behind with the progress our teacher expects us to have. I think I’m still in day 7, and I will not be able to move further. So I continue expanding my day 7.

Day 10: The day we’ve been waiting for. The course would end on day 11, but after the morning meditation on day 10 we are allowed to drop the silence vow and start communicating. If you could have seen the chatter and laughter that burst out of the thai women! They spent hours on the phone, who needs meditation anymore – we get our phones back! For us, the foreigners, it takes a bit of time to realize that we can talk, but then we start. Finally we can learn the names, here everyone’s story and reasoning for coming for the course, exchange our progress reports and rant about how scared we’ve been with the chanting of our teacher. But even if we can talk in our free time – the meditation still has to continue, and silence has to be maintained there.

Finally we can understand why the silence is a necessity – the meditation course is for ourselves only, for our thoughts and personalities. We each have enough rubbish inside us to deal with, and we really don’t need it from others – but if you keep chattering between the meditation sessions, you also are exposed to other people’s internal rubbish, and then how do you imagine to keep your thoughts calm and meditate? It was not possible, as each of us was recycling what we had talked about right before the session, and vipassana techniques were low on the to-do list during that session. But I finally find will to sit through the session without moving my legs at all. Never again I’m going to spend an hour in a cross-legged position without moving. Day 10 continues like the previous days, just a lot louder, and then comes day 11 – and we again have to be in the hall at 4.30. It’s been too many day of waking up early already. More teachings, one last breakfast, and it’s time to return to the civilization and celebrate Thai New Year.

Now when I’m done with this, there are a few conclusions I can make. First, though vipassana is not linked to any religion in particular and everyone can practice it, I think it makes more sense for Buddhists, hindus and other people who believe in karma, reincarnations and similar stuff, because then you can take some parts of the teachings more seriously. A lot of the thai women were doing the course for 3rd, 5th or even 10th time – say, once a year, and they say they really benefit from it. For me – I was far from the enlightenment, feelings and end of my misery the teacher said we’d achieve, but what vipassana did help me  was getting past my anger with India. During the 10 days I had so much time to think and reflect on my life and decisions, things I’ve gone through in Latvia, Belgium and India, that I could look at them with a fresh eye. While I still love and hate India at the same time, there’s no more anger in me. I have deposited the survival skills I learnt there in a safe place somewhere in me – I know I can use them again if need be, but for now – they are no longer necessary. The anger and frustrations are out of my system, and I can see my India time for what it was – 11 month of unforgettable and diverse experiences that noone can take away from me.

I’m afraid that life in Europe, while something that I really miss, will also be boring - there will be no “let’s get through this day alive. Let’s cross the street without being hit by a bike, cow or a truck. Let’s not get bitten by stray dogs, ok? Let’s not get food poisoning from food or water, or shower. I hope I’ll have electricity when I get home. I hope there will be butter in my shop, doesn’t matter which of the 2 brands, but let there be butter!”. I’m afraid that back at home my biggest worries will be (of course, after I’ll have solved my biggest worry – unemployment that’s silently waiting for me) not to get my nice shoes dirty by stepping in a puddle or wondering if my favourite chocolate will have a promotion soon.

Temple, temple, same, same. 2 capitals of Thailand – Bangkok & Ayuthaya

Day 39 – Day 40, 28-29/3/2012. 

My 2nd day in Thailand. As I had spent the previous evening planning my Thailand trip  – yes, I finally planned it only once I was there – I went to the train station, made all my train bookings and was ready to enjoy a bit of BKK. While waiting for the bus to go to Khao San road (I didn’t even have a plan for where to go and what to do) I met a nice lady from Australia and though the 5 km journey in the bus took us 1 hour and all around BKK’s historical centre, we had a pleasant chat and I ended up with a hotel recommendation in Chiang Mai.

I didn’t do anything much on this day as well as I felt it was too late to do a serious sightseeing in the historical centre, so I just allowed myself to indulge in the fresh fruits, shakes, street food and massages. The feet massage was good. Like walking on air after it. Later I went to see the Golden Mountain which is a temple on a hilltop and has fabulous views to the city. But with my basic map and thai people not speaking English, I kept getting lost, so eventually I gave up on searching for the many buddha statues I was suggested to see.

In the afternoon I treated myself with nice views to the glossy skyscrapers of BKK. I don’t remember the name of the park, but taking a walk in a park that is clean, pleasant for strolls and is surrounded by high-rise buildings while maintaining the ambience of a peaceful oasis was awesome. I’d forgotten that walks in parks can be this nice. A funny thing was the group aerobics lessons taking place in the park and hundreds of thais exercising in the rhythm of music and instructor’s commands. Then at 6pm everyone suddenly froze and stood still for a few minutes – yes, the national anthem here is played every day at 8 am and 6 pm.

I took the famous skytrain – basically, a metro train that goes above ground level. and arrived in Siam Square – the shopping paradise. Name the brand – you have it here. Pick one of the dozen shopping malls. See a thai boxing match outside a mall. Have your daily amount of street food. And enjoy the high-rise buildings around you. I loved it! I couldn’t resist going to a Starbucks and having a cheesecake. After India this was like being in a fairy-tale.

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However, on the next day I started my day early to see to the top 3 attractions in BKK. First: Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining buddha. You wouldn’t believe the amount of touts who stand next to the entrance of a temple and say that it is closed and offer to take you to another, better place for sightseeing, whilst it is obvious that people are entering and exiting the temple and it’s open. I had heard the reclining buddha is huge, but I didn’t expect it to be this massive! Really really immense proportions! The temple grounds were lovely, with all the colourful and artistic details and decorations on the buildings and the hundreds of smaller and bigger buddha statues. But after a while you start feeling that once you’ve seen one temple, you’ve seen them all, as they are quite same same (but different).

The Grand Palace and the temple of the Emerald Buddha. They charge an outrageous 400 baaaaht (13$) entrance fee for the complex, but it was nice nevertheless. You are not allowed to go in wearing tank tops or shorts and you can borrow clothing on spot for free. I had hoped that a shawl would do the trick as it covered my shoulders, but no – I also had to wear a fabulous yellow shirt while on the palace grounds. If the reclining buddha was unexpectedly huge, then the Emerald buddha (made of jade, in fact) was unexpectedly tiny! But they dress up the statue in different outfits for different seasons – summer, monsoon and winter.

Then I had a quick lunch and proceeded with a ferry across the river to Wat Arun – yet another picturesque temple. But sightseeing in the heat is not an easy task – I’d forgotten I can sweat from my eyelids and knees. Half a day of sightseeing is enough to exhaust you, and as I was going to have an overnight train journey, I decided to treat myself again with a massage – this time the thai body massage. I cannot decide if I liked it because it was quite painful at times, but I felt superb after it. I also tried the fish spa – the teeny-weeny fish that nibble at your feet and remove the dead skin. The first 2 minutes are awesome/awful as you feel you will be tickled to death, but then you get used to it and it’s pleasant. Plus they really clean your feet.

Feeling rejuvenated I went to the train station quite early, eager to see how the trains in Thailand look like. I had a ticket in 2nd class sleeper and oh my – that’s a pleasant change from India! Big berths, curtains, a man who comes and makes your bed (and the bed was softer than most of the hotel beds I’d stayed in India) and you only get 4 people in 1 compartment. I had a lovely british couple as my company and judging from the people I meet here – it’s only british and germans that come to Thailand. There was enough space for my baggage overhead. The train ran smoothly and kept running and running and running…. We were supposed to arrive before 10am in Chiang Mai – a city in the North of Thailand. At 7am I woke up from the attendant shouting “1 hour, 1 hour!” – cannot be that quick, can it? One hour later she was still saying “1 hour, 1 hour”. When it was 10am and we should have already been there, she suddenly changed her saying to “3 hour, 3 hour!”. And a 3 hour delay it was. I hear that it is a norm on Thai trains.

Day 45, 3/4/2012. 

Just the day before I had read about this place Ayuthaya which is a UNESCO world heritage site, and the ancient Thai capital. It’s 1.5 hours from BKK, so I thought I’d take a day trip there on the last day before meditation. Turned out the train from Chiang Mai was stopping there too, but the scheduled time would have been something around 5am, and with my big bag – no way I’m going sightseeing. As I woke up at 7am – when we were supposed to be arriving in BKK, they said it’s 2-3 more hours to BKK. Hey, why not get off the train then in Ayuthaya. Quick plan, and less than an hour later the spanish girl from the trek Miriam and I were standing on the platform in Ayuthaya. The station provides cloak room services, there are plenty of places were to rent a bicycle and off you go exploring the ruins of the multiple temples! Turns out that neither can I multitask while riding a bike nor can I ride with a laptop and a heavy handbag in the front basket, nor can I lift the bike that has the heavy things in the basket atop a ferry.

But Ayuthaya was a bit of a disappointment. In the map it seemed to be such a nice little town with its centre surrounded by river and temples and ruins scattered throughout it. In reality it was a lot bigger and the roads were immensely wide – but that did help riding a bike on the left side of the road a lot easier. The city is so big that you cannot walk it – you have to hire a tuktuk or a bike. We cycled a lot and saw a few temples, but a lot of them were closed or were charging a 50 baaaht (nearly 2$) entrance fee – I don’t mind paying entrance fees, but 50 baaaht for each temple is too much, plus then you have to hire a guide or audioguide extra. And cycling in the midday sun sure is not an easy thing. We decided to take take a train back to BKK in early afternoon and were back in BKK by 3pm.

My plan for the day was internet, laundry and Chinatown, in a reverse order. Chinatown was massive and an explosion for all senses – with colours, smells, people and everything-you-can-imagine goods sold there. But even given its crowdedness and chaos, it was a lot easier than an Indian market for me. It would have been more useful if my visit had a purpose of shopping, but I just wanted to see how it looks like. Done. Can come back :)

Sawatdee, Thailand!

Day 38, 27/3/2012. 

I left Delhi on early Tuesday morning, and had a flight to Bangkok. I had left my dear family in Delhi and I was leaving 11 amazing months behind me. Leaving was sooooo difficult. But I know we will meet again soon. I was the first one to board the plane and I had the luck to have a family with 2 children behind me and a vomiting boy next to me. As I hadn’t slept at all, I wanted to sleep through all the 3 hours or so of the journey; immediately after sitting down I inflated my neck pillow and prepared for nice dreams, but the kids behind me started using my chair as a boxing sack. One strong word to the mother from my side, and they stopped. Restarted after 5 minutes. Then I lost my temper, shouted at the looking-forward-to-holidays family that is unable to control their children at 5am, and they stopped. I slept. Woke up as we were landing at 11am local time. Indigo Airlines really are on time always! Farewell India, hello Thailand!

The Bangkok airport was first class. People were smiling and willing to help. Immigration was speedy, as I already had gotten my visa in Delhi. Train to the city – easy to find. Train – comfortable. People – speaking English with an accent I could barely decipher. When I had to change from the train to a metro, I stood on the platform, elbows out, ready to fight for my spot. Then the metro stopped, opened the doors and I was the only one who wanted to act like an Indian. Thai people were patiently standing on the sides, letting people get off first. Wow. But I felt good to know that I haven’t lost my manners at all and I had no problems adjusting back to living in a place were people are polite and not pushy. And I love it when people call me “miss” instead of that obnoxious Indian “madam”.

When I got out on the street, the one thought that puzzled me (and it still hadn’t left me after a week here) was – where are all the people? How come streets are so empty? Why is traffic so organized? How do I cross a street with no lights, if I’m the only one who wants to cross and there is no crowd in which to blend in? How come it is so clean here? There are very few trash bins, but nevertheless the streets are clean!

I was staying in a nice hostel close to the main train station – I booked it solely for the purpose of having an address proof for visa, but it turned out to be so nice, that I returned there for my last night in BKK as well. Ultra clean, with towels, wc paper and soap, with a locker, laundry machine, wifi, library of travel books, kitchen and free coffee – it was everything one needs in a hostel. After Indian hotels this was a 5* place.

And then I crashed on the bed. When I woke up, There was a girl from Germany who had arrived that day as well, so we decided to take it slowly and go to the main backpackers street to have a first look at the city and food. Getting a taxi is quite easy, and they all use meter. The tuktuks here are different than in India, and I’d say that less comfortable. Plus the tuktuk drivers are assholes that you cannot haggle with. With taxi from my hotel to Khao San Road it was 70 baaaaht by meter – and the tuktuks were asking for 150 baaaht, not even willing to haggle. Why would anyone use them – I don’t know.

Khao San Road in BKK is the main backpackers ghetto. A street/area full of restaurants and bars with cheap beer, vendors selling “same same but different” t-shirts and all kinds of souvenirs, vendors selling pad thai – the thai style noodles, mangoes, pineapples, watermelons, fresh juices and fruit shakes. Touts advertising thai boxing and ping-pong shows. People getting tattoos and dreadlocks. Tired travellers resting on chairs while their feet is being massaged. Ultra cheap thai massages. Loud music from everywhere. But with all this – none of the hassle one gets in Pahar Ganj in Delhi! The place was great.

In the beginning I was so excited to see so many western brands, 7/11s on every street corner selling all you need with fixed prices, and cafes sell croissants that actually look like croissants. But after some days here I felt that the presence of the western chains is a bit too much. But then again this exposure to the west and an infrastructure that is built to cater for every need of a tourist – this is what makes travelling in Thailand so easy. I had forgotten that life can be so easy and simple. I know why it has been so difficult for all my latinos to return back to India after holidaying in Thailand.

All packed, (not) ready to leave!

Day 37, 26/3/2012. 

My last day in India.

I went to see “Agent Vinod” in my local Sapna cinema – I had to see the movie that’s been filmed in Latvia! Though as a spy movie it was a waste of time, I enjoyed those 15-20 minutes of screentime my country got. Old Riga, and even the roundabout at Ģertrūdes church – I saw my window of the office in the ministry in the movie! What I didn’t like was that they incorporated a lot of stereotypes about us in the film, including the motels and easy girls, plus everyone had to speak Russian instead of Latvian. But it was exciting to see my streets, nevertheless.

Sapna cinema is really the real thing, full with bhaiyas and no terrorist warnings. (Last time when I had gone to a multiplex cinema here it was quite weird to read on the screen in the cinema – “Please keep watching the people around you closely. Someone might be a terrorist.” Encouraging.)

Back at home we ordered some tibet kitchen, had last dinner, chatted, cried and it was time to go.

After my last days in Delhi I had convinced myself that Delhi is the worst place on Earth, and even now, when I tell people that I spent almost a year in India, I tell them that Delhi was awful as a city. But I’m only convincing myself with this so it would be easier to leave – and it was hard anyway. I had an awesome time in India, and I don’t regret the decision to come there, but leaving the people, especially my latino family, was incredibly difficult.

I really want to eat cheese, lettuce and fresh salad. Drink tap water. Take a shower with my mouth open. Walk along a street unnoticed. Throw out trash in a trash bin on the street. Not have to always look out for bus windows because you never know – someone might simply spit on you. Cross streets at the traffic lights and have drivers actually stop at the traffic lights or pedestrian crossings. Shop in shops with set and visible prices. I will not complain about heat anymore, because it does not get hot in Latvia. I miss these things that I’ve always taken for granted.

Leaving India, I was leaving a country that has given me one of the best times of my life, and I miss my latino family and other friends. I will miss the food, the travelling and the life I’ve led there. But I do not miss the pollution, the garbage, the harassment and hassle, the always present poverty and misery. I know I will come back, because India – you have my heart!