Day Two: Dog Meat?

We arrive in Bangkok on a "Bus Plane". There is no terminal; we exit the plane by climbing down some stairs and are greeted with the hot, humid air of Thailand. We take five steps on solid ground before boarding a bus that brings us to a building. It is midnight here in Thailand, but only ten a.m. in Utah. On the seven hour plane ride from Tokyo to Bangkok, I'd slept almost the whole time, so my body is still on Utah time. It's dark outside, but it doesn't feel like it should be midnight. My body is so confused. And a little angry at me for messing with it's routine. I guess I never knew the true meaning of being jet-lagged until now.

Judah is our client. He came to Bangkok a week ago. He's been corresponding with two of our group members as to when and where we should meet when we get here. We thought he was going to pick us all up at one in the morning today, the 21st. But Andrea checks her email again and re-reads his email.

"I'll meet you at Bangkok airport at one a.m. on the 22nd."

The 22nd? Crap. We're going to be sitting here at the airport for a while.

We wait until almost 2 a.m. then decide to take a caravan of three taxis (there's 12 of us) to the K.T. Guest House, since none of us have any idea where Judah is. I get to ride in a hot pink taxi.



Cars here don't exactly seem to have traffic laws, or the laws don't seem to be enforced, anyway. We spend most of this ride halfway between two lanes. Turn signals are scarcely used. The lanes and the driver's seat are all on the opposite side than we're used to. It is two in the morning, and apparently this city doesn't sleep. We're passing cafes and restaurants and people are just sitting outside drinking coffee and chatting.

We arrive at K.T. Guest House. I've never wanted a shower more in my whole life. The shower in this bathroom has no curtain, no divider from the rest of the bathroom. Just a small step down, and you're in the shower. I don't care. It is the most glorious and most needed shower I'd ever taken.

It is 1 pm in Utah. It is 3 am here. I slept enough on the 3rd plane, so I'm not tired enough to sleep. I spend a few hours on my computer until I decide it would be a good idea to sleep a little bit before we get going again at 7 am, Thai time.

It is 7:30 a.m. We still can't find Judah. He was supposed to meet us at 7 a.m. Our plan today was to take a bus to Poi Pet to ride the elephants and play with baby tigers. But we really need Judah to be our guide and our translator. So we work on plan B. We'll stay here in Bangkok for an extra day, practicing using our recording equipment and getting some shots and sound recordings of things we can use in the documentary. This way, even if we can't find Judah, today won't go to waste. We only have eleven days. Two of those days are travel days; which gives us nine days to shoot everything we need for our documentary. We need to get busy.

We're hungry, so most of us leave the hotel in search of food. 7 Elevens are on every corner here, so we get some breakfast there. Around the corner, a woman cooks some meat in her little food stand. It smells pretty good. Landon decides to be brave and buy some, although he has no idea what kind of meat it is. He takes a bite. I am debating as to whether or not I want to be brave too and try some. Landon lets me try some of his. It has an interesting flavor - not really in a good way. We decide it's dog meat. Landon waits till we're out of sight of the woman who sold it to him, then throws the mystery meat away.



9 a.m. rolls around. Still no Judah. Plan B goes into effect. We assemble our recording gear (cameras, lenses, microphones) and set out for the streets of Bangkok.

You may think this is a nice, pleasant little river. But that's poop water right there.


This is a tuk-tuk:








Everyone loves getting their picture taken here.
































We come across a man in the market. He has one leg, and is wheeling himself around on a tiny platform with wheels. His young daughter follows closely behind as he slowly wheels himself back and forth, up and down the pathway of the market. He holds out a bowl with only a few coins in it - he's a beggar. We give him 40 baht (slightly more than one American dollar) and ask if we can take his photo. He nods.



We meet back at the K.T. Guest House. Still no Judah. We part ways with six of our group members, who are going off to another part of Thailand to shoot a different documentary. It is down to Alauna, Andrea, Landon, Abraham, Mike, and I. Mike arranges for us to stay another night at the Guest House, as it is becoming more and more apparent that we aren't meeting up with Judah any time soon. We book two rooms; three of us in each room. By this time, we are starving! We take our cameras and audio recorders and head out again for a quick bite and then for more camera work. Mike has gotten the address to a restaurant nearby. We hail another hot pink cab and the driver gestures for all of us all to get in. All six of us (seven, with the driver). In a four seater Toyota corolla.

Mike and Abraham cram in front, while the rest of us squeeze into the back. I am defaulted to someone's lap, of course. Fortunately, the cab ride is short, and before we know it, we've arrived at the restaurant.

We eat, and everything is delicious. Mike and Abraham each order the same thing, and it is so spicy, tears stream from Mike's eyes, and sweat beads on Abraham's forehead. Although it may have burned holes in their insides, they claim they liked it anyways.



We hail another cab, and this time, Landon and I get to sit up front, while the rest of the group crams in the back. This time, it's a forty-five minute cab ride to the pier, where we run to catch a ferry, just as it's about to speed away from the dock. We make it in just in time. The ferry ride is only 15 baht, which is less than 50 U.S. cents. This is my favorite part of the day.









The ferry takes us to The Grand Palace, which is where the king stays when he visits...I think. I'll have to do some more research on that.

Next, we take a tuk-tuk around this part of the city. We stop at a Buddhist temple, and take some pictures of it while our tuk-tuk drivers wait.

4 pm: I don't know about everyone else, but I'm losing steam by this point. I haven't really had a full night's sleep since Tuesday night. We take the tuk-tuk over to a suit shop, where some of our group members order custom made clothes. Here, you can get three custom made shirts, a custom made suit, and two sport coats, also custom made, for only around $400 U.S. dollars. Alauna gets fitted for and orders a long, purple evening gown, and it's only $130.

5, or maybe 6 pm: It's time to go back to our hotel. We're all exhausted. We try to hail a cab, but instead, another tuk-tuk pulls over. We exchange glances. It's a long way home....should we really take a tuk-tuk, which would be smaller and less comfortable than a taxi? The tuk-tuk driver claims he can take all six of us. Yeah, right. We hail another tuk-tuk. Three of us get in the first tuk-tuk, and the other three climb into the second one. Some of us are more than happy at the chance to ride home in tuk-tuks, since there are two of them, rather than cramming everyone into one Corolla. It's a long ride, and it's getting dark outside.

The night life has already begun to emerge. The streets are crowded with shops and little carts with people selling food. We notice the prostitutes standing out on the corners with their pimps standing behind them, ready to make a deal. It's sad to watch, but at least these ones appear to be over the age of eighteen. We have yet to witness any younger ones, although we undoubtedly will several times over the course of our journey.

When we arrive back at the hotel, around 6 or 7 pm, I lay down on the bed, fully dressed, hat and all, and pass out. For several hours. I hadn't meant to! I was just going to rest my eyes for a bit, before getting in the swimming pool. But I was much more tired than I'd thought I was. I miss dinner, but that's ok. I wasn't really hungry anyway. I may or may not have eaten dog meat today.