Hi Team,
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\nI’m happily sitting in a nice air conditioned room while some dude chats away in French…kinda hard to write in English but we’ll see how it goes.\u00c2\u00a0
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\nToday has been a super long day.\u00c2\u00a0 We ventured forth on the public buses of Bangkok today to get ourselves to the crocodile farm a little ways out of town.\u00c2\u00a0 The air conditioning was wonderful and it was amazing to see how Bangkok goes on and on and on and on.\u00c2\u00a0 The crocodile farm was at once cute, disgusting, sad, and hilarious.\u00c2\u00a0 Best of all was the fact that it was a farm, zoo,\u00c2\u00a0and shooting range all in one!!!\u00c2\u00a0 Seriously, there were these teams of guys, racing through this little range, shooting at targets, while all these adorable families with tiny little kids were looking at the caged up and shadeless monkeys and tigers and hippos and, of course, crocodiles.\u00c2\u00a0 There were soooo many crocodiles.\u00c2\u00a0 Little ones, big ones, and a whole mess of mutant ones– ones without tails, with six legs, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 We got to watch a lot of them race over each other to get at some chicken carcasses.\u00c2\u00a0 Crocodiles are some blind mother fuckers– they couldn’t ever see the meat, just smell it, and they kept biting each other.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh yeah, we also saw a\u00c2\u00a0show\u00c2\u00a0where a couple of dudes stuck their hands and heads into trained crocodile mouths. \u00c2\u00a0It was quite an experience.
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\nYesterday, things were a tad more normal.\u00c2\u00a0 We went to see the Teak Mansion (Rama the V’s palace), got lost in the bowels of the Chinatown (lots of Hello Kitty pens) and Indian neighborhood markets (lots of polyester), and ended up at this cute tourist trap mall where hipster Thai artists plied their wares and we forked up the dough to see an amazing puppet show.\u00c2\u00a0 A version of the Ramakini (sp) where the evil demon becomes evil and the great god becomes human.\u00c2\u00a0 It was fabulous.\u00c2\u00a0 Hard to explain in words but imagine three folks manipulating one puppet– one on the feet, one on the head and arm, and one on one arm– and then imagine that the three folks and the puppet are all moving in very stylized synchronized movements so when one person (or puppet) raises\u00c2\u00a0his\/her leg, everyone raises\u00c2\u00a0his\/her leg in exactly the same way.\u00c2\u00a0 Unbelievable.
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\nAlso unbelievable is the food, and it’s so much fun to procure.\u00c2\u00a0 We spend a lot of our days wandering by vendors selling stuff on the street, making weird pointing gestures, and (for me) asking ridiculously “jay?”\u00c2\u00a0 (vegetable)\u00c2\u00a0 to which I often get a “meat” or, more often, an actual sentence that I don’t understand.\u00c2\u00a0 Fortunately for me, I have Josh and Steve to taste the first bites of everything and check for meat.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s pretty fun and quite adventurous, although now we’ve got quite a repetoire of things we like– little sweet\/sour things in green leaves, corn, fried scallion pancakes, and, of course, the ubiquitous and delicious sticky rice with mango!!!
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\nWhat else can I tell you?\u00c2\u00a0 We went to see the green buddah and the grand palace.\u00c2\u00a0 It was quite grand and the king has a phenomenal collection of “guns and knives and killing things.”\u00c2\u00a0 Those of you who know about my secret penchant for People Magazine will understand just how into the royal family I am now.\u00c2\u00a0 I love looking at the pictures of them being given gifts by hill tribes, being presented with the new subway system, and playing the saxophone.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re so\u00c2\u00a0fascinating.\u00c2\u00a0 The queen has even invented six\u00c2\u00a0outfits that every Thai woman should wear.\u00c2\u00a0 I saw\u00c2\u00a0pictures of them in the Queen’s collection of ancient Thai silk– a pretty neat collection in and of itself.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0
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\nWe rode the subway too.\u00c2\u00a0 It just opened.\u00c2\u00a0 Pretty cool system.\u00c2\u00a0 You get this little plastic token and touch it to a screen to get in.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t quite measure\u00c2\u00a0up to the “T”, which as you may know, I love.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s right up there.\u00c2\u00a0
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\nWe also went to a sex show.\u00c2\u00a0 (Conservative cousins, don’t freak out at this one.\u00c2\u00a0 Skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid it:)))\u00c2\u00a0 Like the crocodile farm it was depressing but also a little human.\u00c2\u00a0 For some reason the Lonely Planet steered us to a place called Supergirls, which didn’t seem any different from the others being touted by the little dudes pushing menus in our faces while saying “ping pong show.”\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s where the Lonely Planet sent us and that’s where we went.\u00c2\u00a0 Inside, were several very real looking women, giggling on stage, looking bored, and then moving coke from bottle to bottle with their vaginas, giving birth to ping pong balls (of course), and (amazingly) blowing out birthday candles and popping balloons with darts they’d popped out of themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 Hmm.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not really doing this adventure justice. Let’s just say we only lasted through three of the ten or so acts,\u00c2\u00a0 there was no sex on a flying motorcycle like the Lonely Planet promised, but we did enjoy when the birthday candle blower-outer couldn’t do her thing and had to get a replacement up on stage to do the deed– very professionally I might add.
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\nTomorrow we’re off to Ayuttaya and then onto Chiang Mai.\u00c2\u00a0 Probably we’ll write you again there.\u00c2\u00a0 Liza, Stephen, and Arielle, big ups for recommending Shanti Lodge.\u00c2\u00a0 We love the atmosphere, that it’s away from the crowds, and, of course, the pineapple lassis.\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks.
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\nTo all of you I have to write back to individually (especially you Dad), I promise I will ASAP.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me know if you want off this list.\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t be offended.\u00c2\u00a0 Promise.
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\nxoxoxoxo -Phil (with Josh muttering over my shoulder and correcting my spelling\/grammar)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi Team, \u00c2\u00a0 I’m happily sitting in a nice air conditioned room while some dude chats away in French…kinda hard to write in English but we’ll see how it goes.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 Today has been a super long day.\u00c2\u00a0 We ventured forth on the public buses of Bangkok today to get ourselves to the crocodile farm … Continue reading SE Asia Travelogue #1 – Thailand<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joshuarosenstock.com\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}