The market aisles are not wide enough for my scooter!!! (posting from the road)

A new low point came today...I have, for some reason, developed massive pitting edema. I have no definiton between my calves and ankles. My feet are so puffy that my flip flops are stretched. As for my actual shoes - forget it. Maybe its the heat, the recent numerous flights, the salty food or just my luck. Either way I look like someone who should be driving a scooter around Wal-Mart. Not the ideal physical condition to trek through the largest market in the Southern Hemisphere, but I did. (I had to, it's on the list of 1000 places to see before you die - it was the 3rd place that I have seen on this trip and my 82nd (I think) overall).

Anyway, Chatuchak or JJ market is a true assault to the senses. The sme animal is for sale in both the pet department and the food court. Down one aisle is fine pottery and the next is live fish. Turn left and it looks like page 27 from the Pottery Barn catalogue but turn right and it looks like a scene ripped from a PETA poster.

Anything, and I do mean anything you may want is available at this market...pearl necklaces, snakes, aquariums, giant buddhas, mice, all sorts of parrots, chopsticks, iguanas, squirrels (both for food and pets), dogs, cats, dining room set, crocodile, roosters, the pelt of a tiger (I am fairly certain a live tiger was available if you asked the right person), wood carvings, plastic dishes, every type of live fish imaginable, pheasants, throw pillows, art work, chincillas...i think you get the idea.

They do mention in the guide books that the animal section can be a little hard to take for some, it wasn't too bad...at first. After the 30th row of improperly caged animals and animals that are obviously too young to be seperated from their mother, we just wanted to get away. Obviously in the maze that is JJ market this was impossible, instead a wrong turn was made and we stumbled on to a cock fighting ring. All local eys pelled away from the 'match' in front of them and turned to stare that our pale faces. I thought for a minute they were going to make us fight in the ring, against the giant rooster. I don't mind taking risks when I travel but I really don't want to die after being pecked to death in a market while locals placed bets. Needing to both avoid a scene in this obvious den of sin we had stumbled onto and wanting to avoid watching two roosters peck to the death, we tried to exit down another aisle. This brought us into the "holding area" for the roosters. Here rows and rows of roosters in wicker cages, some roaming free and even one in a Heiniken box were housed, all waiting for their turn in the ring. Dumb luck eventually got us back to a food court of sorts. Crowded and overflowing with new foods to try, it's certinaly not like the mall food court. I passed on the food that was killed directly in front of you instead opting for a chicken dish, or one that was 'prepared' out of sight. Sorry to say, it was delicious.

Tonight we met the group that we will be with for th next few days. Our guide is Dino, a flamboyantly gay, but hilarious Khmer national. We also have Scott, an accountant from outside of Sydeny; Kerry, a lawyer from D.C. and Jill, a med student from Houston. Everyone seems nice but will certaingly know more after our 7 hour road trip tomorrow...

Off to bed shortly, I have taken a total of 90 or lasix today in an attempt to relieve some of my pitting edema. Will keep you posted....

Kap-koon-ka for reading.

I hope dog fighting is more humane (posting from the road)

So things are marginally better now. My passport and I have been reunited. Toe is still a funny red colour. I have discovered and account that Bank of f***ing America has forgot to freeze. Still hot, no break there.

We eventually found our driver and spent the rest of the day touring the sights of Ayutthaya. Very nice - thanks Michael Eaton! I only had one faux pas with the monks. I came around a corner in one of the less visited temples and was face to face with 4 monks. I slowly backed away as if I were in some danger. One of the monks spoke some English, and told me that it was okay, keep coming. I noticed at this point they were posing with each other for photos. I offered to take one of them all together with their camera. Taking great care to not touch them, I retrived the camera and snapped a few pictures...the problem came when I went to give it back. I was trying to turn it off or something...anyway I ended up taking a series of rapid fire photos of Christoper, the sky, the ground and I couldn't get it to stop. Of course the monk couldn't help because if he came near me, we may accidentally touch. Finally common sense kicked in, I set the camera down and backed away. I did note the looks on the faces of the monks before I fled - they clearly said "ísn't that the girl who almost vomitted in the temple?"

One of the things that I like to do when I travel is take in a local sporting event. After tonight I think I may have to change that rule. We attended a muay thai boxing event. I wonder if this is what dog fighting is like? Except this is with boys, and I do mean boys. I sat, surrounded by a sea of white faces (the only Thai faces in there belonged to the prostiutes with the creepy old men) and watched as kids wailed on each other. The four bouts I saw - 3 ended because medical attention was needed - 2 complete knock outs and a fractures humerous (upper arm bone). The first knock out came after a head butt and this poor little boy, staggered back and collapsed. They held his hand up briefly but it just fell like a rock to the mat when realeased. No worries, they just rolled him onto a military scoop style strecher and carried him out. There was one (At the very least it looked like he needed a Harborview handshake - little reference for my HMC friends!) white guy fighting as well - he looked absurdly huge next to the Thai boys. Anyway enough about that, it was barbaric to say the least.

Going to take small overdose on Benedryl to night to ensure sleep happens, despite the sweltering heat.

Kap-koon-ka for reading.

There are certainly no peanuts in there...(posting from the road)

I could go on and on (and it seems as though I have) as this is the third e-mail on the same day. Here is a brief summary for the rest of the day...

1) Left tigers and went to elephant sanctuary, rode Asian elephant through the jungle and a river. Riding on the seat of the elephant is very bumpy and uncomfortable but riding directly on the back of the elephant is surprisingly smooth. All the elephant guides live in huts at the sanctuary with their children, whose primary function seems to be playing and bathing the elephants. These gentle giants did not seem to mind 5 or 6 kids, in various states of dress climbing up their trunks, doing cannonballs off of them - generally just being kids but on top of an elephant. The santuary had many baby elephants as well, I had to wade through a small herd of them after Christopher lost his shoe. I was bending over to retrieve the shoe when a little 4 month old came up and tried to stick his trunk in a place I can assure you peanuts are not stored.

2) Argh, our guide, wanting to give us the full Thai animal expereince had the driver stop at this one turn off near a monkey crossing sign, so with a full bunch of bananas we waited patiently while monkeys appeared from the jungle. I began getting a little nervous and given my previous expereince, quite understandly so. Argh kept assuring me that it would be fine....of course it was not. I was just doing as instructed and for a while it worked well. Hold out a banana, a timid monkey would approach, pell and eat the banana. I am not sure what I did to provoke this one nasty female, the wrong eye contact maybe? She went crazy, started howling and scratched the hell out of my left hand. Argh had to rescue me by throwing rocks at her (normally I against the blantent abuse of animals but in this case I was totally okay with it). Something else weird - it's in the EXACT spot where that monkey bit me in Guatemala...

3) Final animal encounter. There is very little money here for the people let alone the animals. There is a small ''zoo'' near where we were, more a less a collection of rescued or abandoned animals. Of course they cannot afford to buy food etc for all the animals. Their solution - left tourists play with a leoard cub for $1.50. So...wrong to exploit animals but wrong to let them starve...so sticky situation. I did spend the money and held the cub...well this used to be a cub...now it's a 60lb cat. I must admit from the photos it looks ridiculous, they keep posing you which is why it looks like a family portrait. I personally think it looks like the photos is saying ''Christopher and Amy Leah are happy to welcome the birth of their lepord into the family". Overall though it was awesome, the lepoard was cute and surprisingly soft. But in keeping with the day, bit me too.

To summerize the day: almost threw up in a monastary, was bit and scratched by different tigers, was scratched my a monkey, was bit by a lepoard and almost had an elephant stick his trunk somewhere no trunk should ever be! Despite the pain, promise of a raging infection and near personal violation - Had a simply amazing day.

Kap-koon-ka for reading.

Send money, water and anitbiotics....maybe a representative from the embassy as well...(posting from the road)

Things are not going well. I am writing this message to keep from having a complete meltdown at the Summer Palace in Ayutthaya. I have lost my passport. My bank card has been frozen by f$%(n Bank of America and I have been unable to get anyone on the phone or online chat for 3 days. It is 35 C out. We are lost in this palace and unable to locate our Thai speaking driver. There was a power surge in the hotel last night…so the air conditioning was knocked out...which means no sleep. The power surge also fried the cord for my computer (computer is fine but cannot be charged). I have been stopped 5 times to be interviewed by Thai girls for an English project (I wanted them to all have unique answers so I started to make up personalities for the different interviews. I am an idiot. Every interview ended with a photo of me - so now there will be my photo hanging in some Thai classroom with the names: Amy Leah, Emily, Anna, Kelly and under it. Unfortuntely the one thing I kept consistent was my nationality. Know they will think all Canadians are liars...).

So to sum up this crappy day so far: I have no money. I am hot and dehydrated. I am exhausted. I am lost in a Palace in a town I cannot pronounce. I have no passport so I cannot leave this country ever. I have discraced my home country by lying to many Thai school children. Oh yeah and my f***ing foot is killing me because a tiger stepped on it yesterday. Tell me why it is I like to vacation again??????

Here kitty kitty...(posting from the road)

Well it turns out monks are a very forgiving group and I was permitted to remain at the monastery which is fantastic news because this no ordinary monastery. Just over 10 years ago some tiger cubs were dropped off on the doorstep of the temple after their mother was killed by poachers. The tiger is an important animal in Thai culture, revered really. The decision was then made to raise the cubs…word of this got out and over the years between other “donations” of abandoned cubs and breeding, the facility is now home to 54 tigers. It was simply amazing to see these giant cats behaving exactly like a house cat back home. We took part in the morning training program that includes feeding, bathing and exercising the tigers.

The youngest cubs, just a few days old are off display so we started with the cubs that were 3 weeks old. Argh, our guide, would show us how the tiger cubs would like to play with string – except we had not sting so she used my $50 Exofficio hat. Sure enough these tigers would run and pounce on my hat, each other, anything that was wiggled in front of them. I sat there while one climbed me and snuggled up…it was surreal until the playful little cat nips came very close to my left breast. These cubs would rollover and let you scratch their belly. At this size, they are very manageable.

Next we moved on to the 3 month old. I learnt tigers grow a lot in those first few weeks – I have scars on my right arm to prove it. EXTREMELY playful. They break their biting habits the same way we did with our cats – a stern no and a tap on the nose. The first bite wasn’t so bad, the skin wasn’t broken but there is a lot of jaw pressure and the area is bruised. My upper arm however got it a bit worse, shirt has a few holes in it, skin was broken and there is soft tissue swelling. The little guy just wanted to keep playing and the techniques for getting him to stop were NOT effective – the trainer pulled him off me and he was not allowed to play with any other guests.

Time to exercise the teenagers! The 1 – 3 year old cats were in the temple with us while we played with the cubs. Just like their younger counterparts they enjoy chasing string – however 150 – 300 pound cats are not what you want running around the temple so we had to walk them to a water enclosure. Walking a tiger is a lot like walking a dog, except the tiger could kill you. Our instructions were basically, you do what the tiger wants. If he stops, you stop. If he runs, you run. The stopping I had no problem with. Our tiger ‘Arrow’ got a little frisky at one point and took Christopher and I for a bit of a jog, more of a drag really.

But we made it, all fingers and toes intact to their water/exercise area. What to you use to play with a 200 lb tiger you ask? Plastic bags or burlap sacks tied to the end of bamboo poles. We would dangle these makeshift toys over the water and the tigers jump up to grab them (all plastic was immediately recovered, I saw no tiger ingest anything it shouldn't have). They also amused themselves by fighting and chasing each other. The experience was amazing because they had us right there in the water with the tigers, who were running free all around us - 9 of them. This close proximity is how I became injured, again.

One of the bigger cats leapt out of the water to chase his buddy and landed on my right foot. These cats are not declawed. To make it worse I and the cat were both dripping wet in water that the animals had been swimming in, and it's 35 C out - in other words 'a tiger's claw cut my big toe and it accidentally got washed out with bacteria infested water'. Pretty sure I am going to lose that toe.

After play time we washed the cats with shampoo and fed them a dinner of cooked chicken (cooked to cut down on the spread of disease).

Finally time for the big cats, these are the elderly, 400 - 700 lb cats. Still nursing my wounds from earlier I was relieved to hear that this would be mostly hands off for us. We did get to walk the cats to their water enclosure, with the assistance of a monk (here is where I made other big error...in my excited state, I approached the tiger when told to but to the wrong side...I tried to grab the lead that the monk was holding on to...the quick thinking monk, dropped the lead and backed away from me (women cannot touch monks)...although not personal my ego took quite a beating...so it's better to let the tiger run free then risk possibly bumping into me...).

They locked the guests inside of a flimsy make shift in the center of a huge canyon while 7 huge tigers frolic. (They cage is there more for the peace of mind of the tourists - it wouldn't stop a tiger. Apparently they used to just draw a line in the dirt...equally effective). Watching 600 lb cats jump at least 2 feet vertically off the ground is amazing. We saw them exhibit their natural behavior as they stealthily lowered down in the water to stalk each other. They wrestled with each other for hours.

The grounds open to the general public in the afternoon to come and pose with some of the tigers(proceeds pay for tiger food etc – imagine how much it costs to feed 54 tigers. By this point they have been exercised, fed and are ready for afternoon nap. Getting to pet, play with, feed, bathe and get both bit AND scratched by a tiger will certainly go down as one of my life highlights (well maybe not that last one, my toe is turning black...)

Ka-poon-ka for reading

p.s. Ed - all fingers still accounted for...no guarentee on the toes...

(note - there is a lot of controversy over the tiger temple on the internet. Allegations of poor living conditions, drugged animals and illegal tiger trading are rampant on travel website chat pages. I can only speak to what I saw at the temple I was at (I have heard that there are other, similar establishments) - the tigers were well fed and appeared healthy. They 20+ that I encountered were all very rambunctious with tons of energy. I saw how they were handled as cubs and can understand how they have no fear/apprehension towards humans. Not drugged, cats sleep in the hot afternoon. The only time they have tourists around the big guys is after hours of playing and their meal it's the only time the cats are relaxed enough. As for the illegal animal trading with other temples/tiger farms...of course I have no idea about that. I hope they do some sort of a trade, just like zoos do, to introduce a new bloodline. As for the legality of it?!?! This is Thailand, I haven't seen a whole lot of law at all, I would doubt there are laws to deal with something this specific and quite frankly if they are going to start introducing and enforcing laws I would rather they started with something along the lines of child prostitution before they tackle monks trading tigers. Living conditions for the cats could be way better - they could also be better for the 7 year old shackled to the sewing machine just down the road. Get some perspective. (construction is planned for a new island to be built on the premise for new tigers to learn how to hunt and eventually be released back to the jungle.) Tigers are worth so much money on the black market here (some zoos in S.E. Asia have armed guards watching the tiger enclosures at night) that these tigers might just be better off in the monastery, at least for a little while. Opps got on a bit of a rant there...)

Out of the pages of a Pier One catalogue...(posting from the road)

So it turns out that the Buddha symbol that is so prevalent in Pier One catalgoues serves a greater purpose then just a decorating accessory. An early rise today took us to the temples of Thailand. First stop, the "Grand Palace" and oh my it is grand. Bordering on ostentaious really. There are gold flecks, mirrors and jewels everywhre; tourists are also abundant - as you will see in all of my photos. I am not sure of the exact statistics but I am willing to bet that at any given moment 75% of Bangkok's tourists are at the Grand Palace. After some obligatory snaps we made our we to Wat Pho.

These temple grounds house two treasures; 1) the worlds largest reclining Buddha (looks like a regular Buddha but more relaxed/comfortable) and 2) a fantastic massage school. The Buddha is large and impressive (would look great on a mantle - I wonder why Pier One hasn't jumped upon this idea yet). The massage school is amazing - about $7 to have your body bent in ways that are not natural - but it feels great.

All relaxed we grabbed a quick bite of street food (Pad Thai and springrolls - I do love a city that has spring rolls available on every corner) before tackling Wat Arun. Bit of a different temple, tiled rather than gold covered. I should mention that all of these temples have a fantastic amount of history and importance in Buddhist society. I also should mention that I only recall snippets and you would be better served to utilize Wikipedia if you want any valid information.

Deciding that we had seen too much of 'wealthy' Bangkok we took to the canals. Or rather we paid a Thai man with a longtail boat to drive us through these waterways. I had read quite a bit about these canal tours as the best way to see the real Bangkok; and that is true. The people here use the canals for everything - transportation, sewer, laundry, food source etc. While it was a unique experience I felt a little of that 'privillged, white person guilt' whle putting through their homelands taking photos. These tours are very common place and most people waved but I still seemed a little Eva Peronish.

Our night concluded with a trip to the night market; home of dirt cheap knock off watchs and many, many, many opportunities to purchase 'sex DVDs'. In Bangkok's seedier part of town, this market is well known for its counterfit items mingled in with 'dance clubs'. True to form we were encountered rats, ping pong show offers and foot massage propostions. (We did utilize the foot massage option - so fantastic...1 hour was less than $10) A terrifing tuk tuk ride later (driver had us at over 80km/hr - there are no seatbelts or even doors/sides to this 'vehicle' and I won't even touch the quality of their trauma system) and I am getting ready to climb into bed...early day in the AM (0500).

Kap-coon-ka for reading

One night in...(posting from the road)

I wonder if the first thing people ask when touring Bangkok Thailand is..."what's that smell"? This will be a short entry as I am exhausted, hot and sticky. It's 29 degrees celcuis with 85% humidity and it's 0200. After meeting up with Christopher, my travel buddy for most of this trip we decided to hit the streets of Bangkok for a quick beer and bite to eat. A block from our hotel we encountered rats running amuck. I am not scared of tigers or lions, but rodents...ewww. My shrieks alerted a tourist police officer who came over...he was amused by mydipleasure and seemd to want to use his flashlight to herd the rats towards me. In hindsight I bet he was after a tip...yes it seems now we have to pay people not to herd plague carrying rodents our way.

Ahhh Bangkok...our next block encountered an invitation to a ping pong show (google it), a pad thai street food vendor, the opportunity to purchase counterfit watches and sex DVD's and an invitation for a thai massage, Yes more rats as well. We did partake in one very odd Asian specilaty - the theraputic fish foot bath.

This is sooo freaky. You dunk your legs in a giant aquarium and thousands of little fish swim over and eat the dead skin off. It took me a good 10 min before I could bring myself to do it, much to the amusment of the staff. After my initial dunk in I inadvertantly shrieked, pulled them out and accidentally flung little fish all over the flooor. Oops. I did eventually man up enough to keep my legs in there. It's essentially a giant amount of hyperstimulation that you recieve - it's a neverending tickle - except not funny.

Off to bed, big day ahead of us tomorrow.

Cop-coom-ka for reading