Some of you may be wondering why posts on the LOTUS travel blog have been slowly but surely dwindling in number. This is because Amber, Erin and I have all embarked on a new journey - one that is going to be long and arduous. There's going to be lots of early mornings and late nights, near-subsistence-type eating, some enlightening moments and plenty of really frustrating ones, and as always, lots of budgeting. With time, that is.
Yup, as many of you may know, the three of us were in Thailand to conduct academic research and now, the time has come for us to write our research papers!
Before Amber and Erin left Bangkok to return stateside, the three of us started sifting through the piles of reading material given to us by various organizations. Literally, there were piles - chunks of which we had to haul halfway 'round Northern Thailand and Luang Prabang. So, as college students do when confronted with copious amounts of probably-necessary reading material, we set off in search of places offering plenty of caffeine and comfy couches. Though I've now been left to continue this exploration alone, here are some of our finds:
1. Au Bon Pain: 1st Fl. Emporium Shopping Mall
This Au Bon Pain is located right next to Starbucks, and after much vacillating between the two - I soon learned that Au Bon serves cheaper Americanos and much fresher pastries. Tres 'bon', indeed. Plus, during the three weeks we were skipping around Northern Thailand, the cafe installed new, comfy leather-type armchairs. These new, bright red installations are great to read in and even greater for people-watching.
I generally catch the lunch crowd since my sleeping habits don't quite permit me to get up in time for the early birds. Yesterday as I stood in line to order, a German fellow in front of me was discussing the unhealthy, addictive effects of coffee with his Singaporean colleague. The Singaporean asked, "Hm - and what about tea?"
"Tea's okay"
"What kind of tea? Black tea? Green?"
"Any kind of tea", replied the German.
An awkward silence followed - the kind that comes when you realize you're not really saying anything at all.
"Hm, yes. I think coffee is just like drugs. It makes addiction. Not so good"
And meanwhile, here I was desperately waiting for them to move along so that I could get that first sip of scalding, bitter espresso onto my tongue.
An earlier day, Erin and I were in the middle of our usual quarter-life crisis, "what-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life"-type conversations when a farang woman sidles into the booth next to us, her arm crooked around some little white bundle. Erin and I looked at each other, eyebrows raised. 'Is that what we think it is?'
She shifted towards us. We snuck glances. And indeed, it was an impossibly teeny-tiny baby squashed between her breast and the nook of her elbow. The new mother lifted the baby in front of her and, leaning forward, peered into its unopened eyes. This new being, just recently introduced into our world, was so premature that it almost didn't look human at all.
In low voices, Erin and I wondered whether these two should even be out of the hospital yet. It was even more worrisome when the mother lay the newborn right down on the booth seat, where people have rested their feet, their bums and left their pastry crumbs, to change its diaper. Then Erin told me about a beggar she'd seen on the steps of the BTS the previous day. This beggar woman also had an impossibly teeny-tiny newborn, laying like a doll in her lap. Erin said that everyone who passed them was just staring, unbelieving their eyes and relieving their pockets of spare change. We wondered about the conditions in which the beggar introduced her child to our world. That sufficiently ended our "what-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life"-type conversation.
2. Dasa Book Cafe: Between Sukhumvit Sois 26 & 28.
As explained on the Dasa Book Cafe website, dasa means "slave" or "servant". So, for us book-lovers who are indeed slaves to the written word, this cozy, second-hand bookstore has a fantastic selection. There are travel guides, travel writing and general fiction, even a small section upstairs that has books in French, German and Japanese. Dasa also has great brownies. They're highly recommended - with whipped cream! Even greater about Dasa is that they don't seem to care whether or not you sit there all day nursing the same 40-baht pot of tea as you pore over the book you've decided to finish without having to actually buy it. Amber went back three consecutive days and managed to get through nearly two-thirds of The Alchemist!
You can also sell or exchange used books here for store credit or cash. I tried to do this today. Turns out they prefer paperbacks so, I got to lug three hulking hardback novels all the way back home.
Usually Dasa offers a nice, quiet environment for you to really relish in whatever you're reading. Unfortunately, I did not get so lucky today. Lately I've been on a travel essay kick (if you catch the first issue of LOTUS magazine, you'll see why!), so I was all ready to hunker down with my Thai iced tea and the three or four travel books I'd selected. Just as I was getting into The Lonely Planet Journeys: Brief Encounters*, four straggly American college students stumbled into the cafe. I knew they were American because to be honest, sometimes you just do. While I really tried to concentrate on the letters in front of me, I also tend to find amusement in eavesdropping on people speaking English when they think no one else does. So, for the next hour, I listened.
Guy with pink Polo shirt to girl with blue shirt: "Ohmygod, you have to read Up Country!"
Blue shirt girl: "Nah - I saw the movie!"
Pink Polo: "Uh - movie? This was not a movie... Are you thinking about the one with Charlize Theron in it?"
Blue Shirt: "Yeaah..."
Pink Polo: "That's "Something-else" Country. Yeah -that's Old Country."
Girl with backpacker headscarf, to no one in particular: "Ohhh, Madame BOVARY!"
Pink Polo & Blue Shirt, in unison: "Shhhh!"
Headscarf Girl: "I know, I'm loud. So, have you guys READ THIS?"
Pink Polo, disgusted look on face: "Ohmygod, this was the worst book ever. Never read it."
Headscarf Girl: "What is it?"
Pink Polo: "Heart of Darkness"
Blue Shirt: "Have you guys read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time?"
Headscarf Girl: "No, what's it about?"
Blue Shirt: "Well, it's kind of hard to explain. But it's like, about this autistic kid and this incident...with a dog... in the night-time."
(Note: I don't think this was a joke because no one laughed. Except me - silently in my head.)
Okay, so I realize my sad little exercise sounds horribly mean, but I've already come to terms with the fact that I'm probably going to be reborn as an ant in my next life anyway. Besides, before they left, Headscarf Girl used my table to violently scribble the name of a book title down, sending tiny seismic waves my way, without so much of an "Excuse me" or "Thank you for so kindly sharing your table with me". I kept shooting glares to the three of them above my book, but all were blissfully ignorant. I really wanted to surprise them by saying something to them in English, but sadly my neurons don't communicate so rapidly as to allow me to fire sharp, witty quips off the tip of my tongue. So, instead, I'm resigned to get out my frustration in writing, well past the expiry date of any of this being meaningful.
Okay, next.
3. Book Lounge: 4th Fl. Amarin Plaza
This new book outlet boasts having over 200,000 books and periodicals on it's banner, making it the "first biggest book outlet in Bangkok". Located on the 4th floor of the Amarin Plaza (near BTS Chidlom), it occupies the corner block of the floor, allowing great views of the bustling streets below. The bookstore has a decent selection of magazines and a large display of colourful coffee-table books on Thailand. There was also an ample Travel section that caught my interest, but upon closer inspection, turned out not to be entirely travel writing (unless I didn't read Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul closely enough - or maybe it's metaphorical). Sure enough, none of the sections turned out to offer exactly what I thought they would. For example, the "Fiction & Literature" section actually means "Fiction & Nonfiction". Needless to say, this occupies a majority of the bookstore. At first I found this frustrating, but then it got pretty fun. It reminded me of those little used bookstores in Chiang Mai (which almost have better categorization systems) where you never knew what treasures you'd discover.
The treasure I found was Louise Brown's Sex Slaves: The Trafficking of Women in Asia. Sounds like quite the gem, huh? This is what merely a year's dedication to a research topic can do to you. I have seen this Sex Slaves book in nearly every bookstore I've been to and every time, the book's covergirl would peer out at me with those hopeless eyes. I finally had to give it a good skim.
I sat down with the book in the Blue Cup Coffee shop, located right there in the Book Lounge. This coffee shop has great huge windows, more comfy sofas, and absolutely brutal, beautifully strong espresso drinks (which is why I was up until 2 am last night, drafting this blog entry). Apparently there's free True Wi-Fi too - though I never managed to connect on my iPod. Maybe next time. And there will be a next time. After perusing Sex Slaves, I found her arguments short-sighted enough to prevent me from spending 400 baht on it and callous enough to make me go back and read it for free at Blue Cup. But only if I really have nothing better to do.
4. Bookstore @ Bumrungrad Hospital's International Patient Center
This tiny bookstore, located next to Starbucks, is chock full of books for the diverse tastes of the various individuals who frequent Bumrungrad. There are the usual fiction/nonfiction, several anatomy, healthy lifestyle-type books, as well as a very multi-lingual periodicals section. I found a real treasure here called Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani. It was worth every baht I paid for it and has so far been the best book I've read this summer. I keep telling everyone about this book, and I'm not gonna stop. To see why, check out Pisani's blog under 'Sites LOTUS Likes'.
This bookstore also holds sentimental value to me. It is where Erin and I first learned that Amber had contracted dengue fever. There we were, just reading away (actually, me heatedly quoting Pisani aloud to Erin while she tried to politely concentrate on her Digital Photography magazine) when I got an SMS from Amber. It said, "Yup, looks like I've got dengue". Lots of disbelief and a little laughter ensued. I say laughter because we were sure that if any one of us had to contract a disease from a mosquito, it'd be Erin. Anyway, Bumrungrad and medical tourism in Thailand is another blog entry in itself - but, to conclude, this is another great place to people-watch.
* Lonely Planet Journeys: Brief Encounters is a collection of stories about "love, sex & travel". Highly recommended because after all, "don't we agree that falling in love with a person is the surest way of falling in love with a place?"
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