My Day as American Tourist in Bangkok

I decided when I first got to Bangkok that I need one day to be a tourist and see all the gimmicky touristy sights and generally orient myself to my surroundings. Benetone was kind enough to organize a one-day tour for us for our day off, so I was pretty excited.  Unfortunately only 3 people of our group wanted to go, and on the morning of the tour one person had to drop out due to a work commitment, so at first it was just me and one other person on the tour.

We started off visiting Wat Trimit, the world' largest Gold Buddha.

 A Buddha made of pure gold!!

 Nice booty, Buddha :-)

 Children ringing bells outside the temple.

 

 

 

Our next stop was Wat Pho, the home of the largest reclining Buddha and one of Bangkok's oldest and largest temples.  The room with the reclining Buddha was extremely crowded (picture the Sistine Chapel type of crowd) but the surrounding area was beautiful and serene.

 What lovely feet you have, Buddha!

 Help us Please!!!! Do not throw Coin into the Pond!! Because, we think it's our food, we eat it.  Then....we all dead!! Thanks...(We're the Carp!!)

 

 

 

 

 

After the 2nd temple, my cohort decided to bail. "I'm not a tourist!" he exclaimed! So it was just me and the tour guide. I was bummed at first but I actually  had a really nice time with the tour guide, who is new to Thailand (he is from India) and actually hadn't been to any of the places he was taking me to!

 

Third stop was the Grand Palace. This was the most crowded place of all.  

 

 My friendly tour guide!

 People everywhere at the Grand Palace.

 

 

After a nice lunch break, we took a really wonderful Canal Tour on the Chao Phraya River and the canals. They call these Canals the "Venice of the East".  I don't know if I'd go that far but it was lovely nonetheless.

 From the inside of the longtail motorboat. Just me, my guide and the boat driver. Very serene and nice to be out of the hubbub of the city.

 At one point we had to wait for the wall to the canal to open, which apparently happens every half-hour.

 

  A floating vendor trying to sell me her trinkets.

   Interesting that you'll see beautiful mansions next to wood shacks on the canals.

  Pretty flowers hanging off the front of the boat.

The last stop was Asiatique, which was a huge shopping mall on the outskirts of Bangkok.  I don't really care about seeing shopping malls and since I was the only person on the tour, we only stayed a few minutes. The most interesting part was this pedicure shop which uses live fish to chew away at the calluses on your feet.  These girls were giggling like crazy!

 

 

 

My touristy day was done around 6pm and I was happily asleep by 8:30pm.  A really fun day!!!!

 



Another Scout Day

 

Another good scouting day on Saturday.  Here are some fun pictures from the day. We're still missing a couple of locations but we're making good progress and are even shooting for a couple of days on a Thai movie backlot called Movietown.

 

 



 



 



 1st AD John and Senior PA Pui at the Ayutthaya train station

 Director James and Nicole, being serious

 Beware Thieft!!

 Sad elephant. Didn't want to show you his face.  Hoping to see happier elephants later in the trip where elephants are treated properly!

 Our Director appears to have a death wish.

 Beautiful shot at a backlot of a film studio outside of Bangkok

 Looks ancient and authentic, right? Fooled ya, it's made of flats on a movie backlot. 

Sa Wa Dee Kaa

Hello!

Yesterday was a productive and fun day. My first time out of Bangkok since arriving several days earlier.  The US and Thai crews went on a tech and location scout. 

 US Crew - Production Designer Pete, Director James, DP Seo, Producer Daemon, Producer Rachvin, 1st AD John, Producer Kulthep.

 

 

The main location is a compound of several houses about an hour's drive north of Bangkok in the middle of nowhere. Very beautiful and very HOT.  There are butterflies, lizards, centipedes ants and bugs of every kind everywhere.  Thai custom dictates no shoes inside a house so we will all be barefoot inside a hot set - OY!

 Our main location

 On the compound of our main location.

 Also on the compound and to be used as a second location

 

 Tech Scouting at the main location

 So beautiful!

 These little guys are everywhere

 Making friends with the locals (this is someone's pet - won't be getting this close to the street strays)

 

 

 After spending only a couple of hours at the main compound the US crew was EXHAUSTED from the heat and humidity. How we're going to handle full shooting days with no a/c is a mystery to me.  We all climbed back in our nice air conditioned van and drove about 10 minutes to a resort for lunch. This is the resort where the US crew will be staying for the run of the shoot.  It is more, uh, rustic than our city hotel to be sure. But it is a real thai resort where Thai companies and youngsters go for retreats, so there are all sorts of cool things to do like tennis, badmitton, bicycle rentals, ziplines, etc.  Most of my US crew doesn't really care about this stuff so we'll see if I can find partners in adventure.  More to come on the resort once we check in.

After lunch we encountered a massive rainstorm (it is monsoon season after all) which lasted about 2 hours.  During this time we drove to Ayutthaya and visited a couple other locations including the Ayutthaya train station and the Ayutthaya floating market, which was touristy but actually very cool.

 At the Floating Market in Ayutthaya, which we'll use as a location.

 Me being a tourist at the floating market.

 Love this children's slide

 Floating Market Ayutthaya

 Stray dogs are everywhere in Ayutthaya - they live on scraps and wander loose all over town. Breaks my heart.

 The boats and bridges at the Ayutthaya floating market.

We got back to Bangkok at around 6pm and man I was exhausted.  It was an exhilarating day to be sure. 

One Night in Bangkok (Plus one more)

I arrived in Bangkok. Hooray!  Someone was there to greet me as soon as I de-planed, which was wonderful. He walked me right through immigration, baggage claim and customs, where he handed me off to a lady who then got me in a van to go to the hotel.  It was very James Bond-like. I could get used to this first class treatment. At the airport and in the van I had a few first thoughts:

-Nobody told me that cars in Thailand drive on the left side of the street. 
-The taxis here are bright pepto pink. I love that!
-I knew it would be humid and it was.  Just waiting for the van for 5 minutes outside the airport made me break into an uncomfortable sweat.
-The language barrier is pretty immense.  I'm not confident enough yet with my Thai skills to say even the few phrases I know. I'm working on that.
-I was surprised at how modern and "Western" the city is.  Almost all signs are in English or at least part English.  Western brands are everywhere. It's kind of like being in an alternate futuristic universe where everything is similar yet not quite what I'm used to.

The driver got off the motorway and drove me through some narrow streets to the Omni hotel in the Nana section of town.  I checked in my room, which is lovely, and they gave me a really pretty welcome box with a book on Bangkok, some cool trinkets, a phone with a local number and a phone list.  I rested for a few minutes then got the call to go to my first production meeting. Woo hoo! 

 My cool Thai treasure box from the production company!

 View from my room on the 22nd floor.

Turns out the production office is located IN the hotel, which is quite convenient.  I took the elevator downstairs to join a meeting in progress and met the local producer as well as a few other folks.  Things are a bit more disorganized here but not in a bad way - it's sort of a happy chaos.  I spent a few hours getting acclimated and caught up to speed on things like casting, locations, scheduling etc.  They ordered me some Pad Thai which was delicious. My first Thai meal in Thailand. 

I was getting super tired by the afternoon but I forced myself to go for a walk to try to stay awake.  Nana is the red light district of Bangkok so there are a million bars, "massage" parlours and of course streetwalkers. There is also a 7-11 about every 500 feet.  I walked up and down the street, changed some money into Baht (rate is about 30 Baht to 1 US Dollar) and headed back to the hotel.

 Pink Taxis!

 One block down from my hotel - Nana Plaza. Very classy!

 Great names for the bars and restaurants 

By 9pm I couldn't stay awake any longer so I slept on and off until about 8am the next morning.  Jet lag is a killer but to be honest I felt great by that next day.

 My room! Nothing spectacular or exotic but a nice transition before I move on to more rural areas a bit later on.  Thai beds are very stiff, by the way!

After breakfast (a combo of Thai and Western style food at the hotel) we headed into a very long production meeting which lasted pretty much all day.  More thai food (Pad Kee Mao thankyouverymuch!) and a very productive work day.  Of course I've barely left the hotel because the truth is I'm working all day and there isn't really anywhere for me to go near my hotel at night. I did make it to a local supermarket which was a trip. I'm hoping to do some sightseeing this weekend.

 The supermarket cereal section. I got some "Frosties"

 Mix of Western and non-Western everywhere you go.

I had my first Traditional Thai Massage last night (in my hotel room, no less) and it was heaven!!!

Slept fitfully last night and actually feel more tired today than yesterday. I guess I don't have superhuman immunity to this jet lag after all.

That brings us to today. This morning we met with the Thai costume designer, then were supposed to do a location scout but it got canceled last minute, so I'm back at the hotel room resting for a bit before catching up on some paperwork type stuff.

 Our local production manager and costume designer hard at work in the office.