The title for this posting, by the way, is one of the many epithets for this city from its full name which is Krungthep Mahanakhon Bovorn Ratanakosin Mahintharayuttahaya Mahadilok pop Noparathratchathani Burirom Udomratchanivetmahasathan Amornpiman Avatarnsathit Sakkathattiyavisnukarmprasit. Yes, that whole thing. The full name of Bangkok is the world's longest place name. Future postings with titles similar to this are all part of the official name of this place.
The activities of the past few days have been rather interesting. One of my colleagues, a guy from Boston named Bryan McGuiness, and I went to Bangkok's spectacular temple that is one of the symbols of the city, Wat Arun, which means "Temple of the Dawn." There are pictures of it below. It was cool, and it afforded good views of the Chao Phraya River, which is historically Thailand's major artery of transportation. Another cool part about this trip is that we took lots of water transport, which is as authentically Bangkok as it gets. River taxis and klong boats all the way, with a short cab ride in between.
following the trip to Wat Arun, we went back to crazy Khao San Road in search of that elusive Israeli Restaurant I had been craving. We succeeded in finding it this time and enjoyed some Falafel and Hummus. Following dinner, we thought that since we were already at Khao San, why not have a couple of beers? It all started out fine, and we found an Irish pub with a decent deal for happy hour. Well, after one bottle of Singha (which is a local brand of beer), we met this Irish guy. A short time later, we met six Irish women, and then 5 more Irish guys. It all went downhill from there. About three hours later, after two Thai women had tried to take me home with them (I asked them what their jobs were. Both said they had none: Red Flag!), we made it back to Hua Mark. It was a fun night and all, but I gotta stay away from Khao San for a while - dangerous!
I have a student whose name is Pak Man. Not his nickname, but it's the name that's registered with the University, the name his lovin' parents gave him. No, I'm not making this up.
The Hua Mark Campus, which is the one where I live, isn't as opulent as the Bang Na one described in earlier postings. But it's pretty cool. It has a Thai Pavilion (Salaa in the local parlance), a mini-jungle with a pond, and wireless internet. My room has CNN and BBC, which is good for keeping up to date on things. The TV also has MTV Indonesia (I'm not sure why, as there is a Thailand MTV,) TV5 from France, a couple of Hong Kong channels including Star Sports, which seems to show nothing but billiards, F1 racing, and tennis, and a channel from India. There are five local channels in Thai as well.
Hail Progress!
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