Taxis, music, dancing, cooking & other monkey business. #videos

It’s a laid back day for us in Bangkok, Thailand which means we’re hanging out, catching up on business stuff, doing laundry and sorting through photos and videos. There’s a nice, quiet coffee shop next to our apartment and we’re the only ones here. It’s tucked away in our quiet neighborhood and only open weekends. It’s run by a young man, Krit, who goes to college during the week and runs the shop on weekends. It’s a really cool place. His dad is and engineer and architect who designed and built the family’s home and the attached coffee shop. The layout and feel are welcoming and there’s indoor and outdoor seating. Sifting through videos I decided I’d share some of the short clips.

Tuk-Tuks (a sort of taxi). The first one is a tuk-tuk ride in Ella, Sri Lanka. Our guesthouse had a dedicated driver, Vino, who’d drive us back and forth to the city center if we desired. A tuk-tuk, or auto rickshaw is a small 3 wheeled mode of transport in Asia. There are many varieties depending on which country you’re in. That could be a whole blog post itself. The guesthouse is set off in the forest and tea plantations. It’s accessed by a skinny dirt path barely wide enough for a vehicle. Here’s a video of the daily ride to town center. CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Cooking classes. We’ve taken a few cooking classes during our journey and really enjoy them. We did a cooking class with Vino’s wife in Sri Lanka and then shared Sunday dinner with the whole family. They use lots of garlic and onions, things that Laurie and I have cut from our diet years ago. We did learn a bunch of new and interesting dishes. We used coconut milk, chilies, curry leaves, and some other familiar spices. We prepared everything from scratch and there were many dishes and it was all really tasty. A green bean dish, a cabbage dish, and a potato spicy dish. CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

Monkeys. There seem to be a lot of monkey stories while travelling in Asia. From our experience there seems to be monkeys mostly at the tourist areas. That’s because where there are tourists this is food. If you’re new to monkeys being around you will lose your food. Quickly. I’ve seen large, burly, grown men shudder as they attempted to stand-off with monkeys and refuse to give up their food. 2 seconds after the small primate shows off its set of scary, sharp teeth and hisses, the previously brave superhero usually drops the food. If they refuse to drop it the much smaller monkey will just take it right of their hands. One way not to lose your food is to keep it out of site in your bag. Once the monkey sees it it’s his food. There’s not way around it. I was strolling down the walkway along the Ganga one afternoon and just bought some peanuts from Renu, the wife of Ranjeep, who used to work at Kailasha Guest house. A few minutes down the river a monkey came at me right as I came upon Shamshan Ghat, where they do the cremations.  This is a tourist spot and there’s lots of snack food for sale. So it’s a monkey hangout too. For a split second I thought “damn I just bought these peanuts” but I knew instinctively what to do based on what I’d seen in my travels. I dropped the peanuts and watched the monkey enjoying them. It all happens so fast so you don’t have time to video anything. One day in Tiruvannamalai, India, I came across a small troop of tiny monkeys in a non tourist area. Quite a different behavior. CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

Music. Occasionally we come across some music. Most of it is wedding related but sometimes it’s not. At the riverfront in Bangkok, Thailand, we came across a band playing cover tunes (Rhinestone Cowboy). It was Friday evening during rush hour at the intersection of the Skytrain and the river taxis. The band was tight and sounded good. As I got closer I soon realized the entire band was blind. One evening in Vapi, India, after aarti and during bhajan, a very young little boy crawled up to a few drums that were lying around in the corner. He started banging on them like he knew what he was doing. CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

Taxis. I could do a whole separate blog on taxis too. But for now I’ll go through a short list of the taxi options in Bangkok, Thailand. There are metered taxis which are a treat if you’ve travelled in Asia. These guys have meters in the cab that actually work and they use them. There are also motorcycle taxis. Grab a helmet, hop on the back, and you’re off. My favorite are the water taxis. We took the Skytrain and Metro downtown missing all of the city traffic. We headed down some stairs to the canal/river and hopped in a long, covered boat. For about 33 cents we travelled about 4 stops West toward the larger river. There are alligators or crocodiles in the rivers and canals so they suggest you don’t go in the water. There are life jackets on board in case you do need to go in the water in an emergency. This way you are bright orange so the alligators can see you better if you’re in the water. CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO.

Dancing. We’ve encountered a lot of dancing on our trip so far. Not something I expected. We were forced into dancing, for a long time, at the wedding in Vapi, India. There was dancing in the streets at all of the weddings during our travels. This week was the most impressive. In our very quiet, off the beaten path neighborhood, there was a commotion. Right as we were leaving the coffee shop next to our apartment, a group of people were coming down the street. There were 2 vehicles, one leading the way and blaring music, the other carrying some people. Between the 2 vehicles there was a group of people dancing. They were also drinking large bottles of beer. It was around noontime. Did I mention this was right out in the street? As the second vehicle got closer we saw a monk, dressed all in white, sitting stoically in the back. This was a celebration of the young man becoming a monk. Him being paraded around while his friends and neighbors got tanked and danced in the street. He had that “party’s over” look on his face. But starting tomorrow people on the Metro and Skytrain must give up their seat for him. It’s one of the fringe benefits of being a monk in Thailand. CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO.