Adventures in Bangkok

Some pictures from my latest adventures in Bangkok...

Temple around Wat Suthat and the Giant Swing

Giant Swing

Wat Suthat

Buddhas inside Wat Suthat

Me (I'll get better at self-portraits!)

Klong (canal)

Democracy Monument

Golden Mount /Wat Sakhet (beginning of the steps)

Bells along the way

Rama VIII Bridge (as seen from Wat Sakhet)

Top of the Golden Mount

Praying

Chinatown phone booth

Why we should all do good

I think one of my favorite NY Times' writers, Nicholas Kristof, put it very well in his recent Op-Ed column - we should all do good because it makes us feel good. But more than that, trying to help others is an important gift that, I think, makes humans so unique. More than our ability to think, our opposable thumbs, or our hairlessness, our ability to feel compassion for others, empathy for those we have never known, makes us unique and we should use this gift. If you are religious, just look to Mattew 25:35-36:

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’

So, on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States, let's all try to follow the words of Coretta Scott King:

The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members, ... a heart of grace and a soul generated by love.

Whether it's texting "HAITI" to "90999" to donate $10 to the Red Cross, donating to one of the organizations listed below, dedicating your time to organize humanitarian efforts (in whatever form they take), or just helping support those that do, you are helping others and yourself.

(This list was taken from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's website.)
A number of organizations are collecting donations and providing relief and aid to Haiti in this time of crisis. Please consider offering your support. If you aren't able to help at this time, please know that the rebuilding process is a long one, and the need for aid will remain great going forward.

UNICEF - Along with UN partners, has begun relief efforts.
Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) - HAS provides medical care and community health and development programs for more than 300,000 impoverished people in the Artibonite Valley of central Haiti.
Doctors Without Borders - Members of Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) are treating the injured.
Partners in Health - This group dedicated to providing the global poor with preferential health care options is collecting donations to provide supplies to hospitals and health groups in Haiti. Help is urgently needed.
AmeriCares - A disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization, AmeriCares has pledged $5 million to the people of Haiti.

The following humanitarian agencies also request support to respond to the earthquake's aftermath:

• Catholic Relief Services 
• Direct Relief 
• Friends of the Orphans 
• Health Empowering Humanity 
• Heart to Heart 
• Samaritan's Purse

Getting lost in MBK

I do not like malls. Ask anyone who's ever come shopping with me, needed me to get something, or, in general, discussed purchasing items that cannot be had at a grocery store. However, Bangkok likes malls. A LOT. Along the BTS, there are malls at Phrong Ponh (Emporium), Ploen Chit (Ploen Chit), Chit Lom (Central and Central World), Siam (Siam Paragon, Siam Discovery... and another Siam something), National Stadium (MBK), and Mo Chit (JJ Mall). These are just the malls I know of along the BTS.

Before Christmas, I headed to MBK to get a camera for a friend staying in Cambodia. She wanted a Nikon camera, and I'd seen the store while perusing MBK for Christmas gifts. I thought it was on the third floor, near where the BTS entrance/exit is.

The thing about most malls in Bangkok is that while there may be a directory or map, it is usually not all that helpful. Also, in MBK especially (which is almost like a market in that there are lots of small shops with ritzy decorations that all look strikingly similar), it's very easy to miss a store as you shift your eyes from one side to the other. After circling the third floor four times, heading up to the fourth and fifth floors (where I had been earlier), circling around those floors, asking at information, cycling back down multiple escalators and getting completely disoriented, circling the third floor again, and asking at information again, I finally found the store... within eye-site of the BTS entrance.

I don't like malls.