Christmas in Waikiki

I usually write about reverse culture shock themes, or running, when I'm back here in Hawaii.  We moved here 3 1/2 years ago, mostly so our kids could experience the US education system, and Keoni is half a school year away from graduating high school.  Kalani has experienced middle school for the first time this year, a big change from earlier elementary / grade school experience.  This won't mostly be about them; they would just as soon stay anonymous online, so even mentioning them breaks form.

Christmas has been nice.  I guess I've not experienced a Christmas here in nearly 20 years, back when Eye and I went to grad school in the University of Hawaii (at Manoa), where we met.  It would've been 19 years ago now.

It never feels completely like Christmas in the tropics, related to the winter expectation, but that's familiar in Bangkok.  There mostly malls and hotels decorate, and office buildings put up some token lights and a tree.  You don't hear the Christmas carols there, but that music does play around here, in Honolulu stores.  They put up lights as a city display, in two different places; that was nice.

I could add, about the kids, that we are terrible at observing holiday traditions in both cultures, but did ok for pulling together some token gifts this year.  Kalani's favorite gift was something she said that she wanted, seeing it in passing, an inexpensive karaoke system.  It's tiny, so small the speaker and microphone would fit in a woman's purse, but the function is decent.  It can play music through a bluetooth connection; the technology is mature enough now.  And it was so inexpensive; people buy coffee drinks for almost as much.

Keo's favorite gift was probably an above average quality headphones set, and he also got a Lego car set, both things he had mentioned wanting.  They were surprised; we usually drop the ball.  We didn't do much else for observance, walking around Waikiki some that day, but it was nice, spending time with family, even cooking basic meals.

Maybe adjusting to local culture, or the US version, went better this time, since I was last here 3 months ago.  For whatever reason I don't need any adjustment time back in Bangkok, in Thailand, but here it feels a little strange for the first week or two.  

Of course we are living in a tourist resort as a main residence area (for us), so that part is unusual.  I did that back in Colorado for a decade or so, in a different life phase, in a ski resort, in the Vail Valley.  It didn't seem so unusual then.  Lots of vacationers were visiting, but then it takes a lot of locals to support that particular industry.  Here resident locals might seem a little less integrated, since there isn't an isolated resort community; Waikiki is within a city of half a million or so people.

One part I always struggle to place is the emphasis on consumption, in local culture, to the extent it makes sense to call it that.  On vacations that seems relatively transparent, that of course you go there to eat special meals, to participate in special events or activities, and it all keeps costing money.  As a local there's a lot you just aren't doing.  Of course I don't miss whale-watching outings or luaus, but everywhere you go everything you see is oriented towards a tourist spending money.  

Even with the ocean right there, which you can experience for free, people rent or buy beach chairs or snorkels, or hire guides to take them places they probably could go, like to go snorkeling.  At least the tourists do visit the beach.  Surfing they couldn't do on their own; plenty take lessons for that.

Tourists don't always do much with the beach theme though.  A chance earlier life-phase contact visited in the Spring and her family seemed to barely see the beach, for doing guided outings to different places.  It seemed odd.  Seeing Pearl Harbor makes sense, or a waterfall somewhere, but the Polynesian Cultural Center doesn't really accurately represent Polynesian culture.  It's ran by Mormons, so it's like a Disney version of cultural summary.  

My Thai family loves that place, so it's not all bad.  Fire dances and whatever else are fine; there would be some historical basis for all of it, even though it also surely includes plenty of interpretation.  Any cultural summary would be like that, so I don't intend that as a unique form of blame.  It would be touchy summarizing "white American" culture, since half of what I valued in the late-middle of the 20th century might seem politically incorrect now, things like Thanksgiving, or pledging allegiance, that form of indoctrination.

This branches a little further into my own musing, not about local experience, but lots of this consumption-oriented tourism ends up dividing people into economic categories, more than they really need to be.  It's not about a intentional, central guiding "them" causing that, it evolves organically.  If you can spend $400 to 500 on a hotel that's who you will be surrounded by, and if you need to seek out "budget" alternatives it's a different class group.  Activities, and all sorts of other offerings, will naturally divide out from there.

At least people can still dress casually regardless of what context they end up within, and nature is still available to everyone.  Not a very natural version of it though; it is an intentional limitation, that tourists are steered to stay within either Waikiki or other appropriate areas.  In online discussion groups it's taboo to mention anywhere else.  I remember someone mentioning my favorite local beach, which isn't too far out of the way, and someone commented that they don't even tell their local Honolulu family members about that, never mind tourists in a broad Facebook group.  There are many more isolated places locals would never mention.  Not that it matters so much; going where lots of other people go instead is comfortable, and easy.

This reminds me of a discussion about tourists being airlifted from a popular local hike, which is definitely no secret, the Koko Head Crater hike.  It's essentially a set of stairs up an old rail line.  We've went up it twice, and to me once was already enough, given that context and theme.  If you get injured along the way it would be problematic getting yourself back down.  Of course locals were blaming people for not knowing their limits, which seems a little unfair to me.  How could someone know how they would react to hiking up over a mile of stairs, at a conventional steep incline?

It's a different story not knowing your limits about swimming in an ocean current, even within 100 meters of the shore.  Once you panic everything changes, and your danger level doesn't match what you might normally expect.  Once Eye and I were caught in a fast current just off a beach in Kauai, and she panicked, and even though she's normally a very strong swimmer it was all she could do to stay afloat.  The irony is that she can't sink in the ocean; salt-water makes you more buoyant, and when we would see sea turtles she couldn't swim down to get a closer look.  So out we went.  

A surfer girl was passing, and read the situation, and put Eye on her board, and she and I pushed her straight back in through that current.  Ordinarily the worst case is that you go out 100 to 200 meters and swim back in (a different way), but right there who knows.  We were at the "corner" of that island, and maybe we really would've been caught in a broader current, and headed out to Australia.

Enough of that tangent.  Tourists are safe and sound in crowded Waikiki beaches, in luaus, and overpriced happy-hour beach bars.  They sometimes feel an inclination to get out and see "the real Hawaii" but that's always a little contradictory, a tourist wanting to go somewhere tourists never go.

in a Waikiki McDonald's; a nice touch, the decoration

Homelessness and drug use

It can be hard to avoid touching on these darker themes when discussing US culture, but instead of adding more general perspective here I wanted to share a couple of unusual related experiences.

Of course I see mentally ill and drug-affected homeless people in Honolulu on a daily basis; it's almost not that big of a deal.  Until you are out late somewhere you shouldn't be, and then it is.  But we recently passed through one part of Chinatown, a sort of rough part of downtown, at mid-day, and saw two sets of people using drugs.  I see people smoke weed about a dozen times a day, but this was something else.  Two guys had a blowtorch and glass pipe of some kind; I guess that's crack?  Right in a crowded plaza space too; kind of strange.  It was a full-sized construction use blowtorch, along with elaborate glassware, straight out of a chemistry set; surely they could've used a smaller and functionally equivalent set-up.

We walked on to a bus stop where a guy was selling some sort of drugs, and one guy smoked some right there.  Off foil; I'm not sure what that means.  It was really something, seeing people walk up to buy drugs, and one guy smoking some.  He didn't react to doing the drugs all that much; that part was a little anti-climactic.  It all seemed normal enough to them, as if that bus stop was just their space for that kind of thing.  I guess it had good customer foot traffic?

It changes things a little seeing it, versus just knowing that's a part of where you live, and what those people are doing.  I don't mean "those people" in some sort of generalizing, negative sense; homeless people would surely all have different stories they're living out.  But at least a half dozen people are living that life, based on what we saw with our own eyes over the course of a half an hour or so.

Honolulu wouldn't be ok with tourists seeing that; it would get cleaned up in Waikiki.  Which reminds me; they had an extensive "spread Aloha" neighborhood watch sort of program before, maybe even back in the spring, and that's not going on now.  Maybe it's cyclic?  There are a few places that homeless people set up camp within 3 blocks or so of our house, with mats and bedding and such.  We don't live far from the zoo, for people familiar with this area.  I don't mean the sizeable encampment area by Paki park, or the outposts by the library, or the edge of the golf course, all within a 5 minute walk of the places I am talking about.  Over in Dillingham road there are whole homeless encampment villages.

Where am I going with all of this?  Nowhere, I guess.  It's a real issue.  That's not news to anyone living in any US city.

We always had a few homeless people around, 20 years ago, when I went to grad school here, maybe a half dozen or dozen you'd always see in Waikiki.  And many in other parts of the island.  But the numbers are different now.  I'm not the right person to shed light on what it means, the causes, or how to resolve it.  Of course I feel worse for those people than I do for myself for experiencing it, for being caused to see them.  

Having my kids be around relatively unstable people is a third thing; I also get it why people see it as a real issue beyond the aesthetic part.  In general not much violent crime is adjoined with homeless issues, but some it.  I've always discussed most themes with my kids, so talking about what drugs are and how they destroy lives is normal ground for us.  People smoke weed every 100 or so meters in Waikiki, so you get limited exposure to that other part of it everywhere else.

I should close on a happier note.  I met with online tea friends here this stay; that was a highlight of the trip.  They were here for the Honolulu Marathon.  I run, but I've never ran in an organized race, at least not since my teens, when I did run cross country and local 10ks.  I've been off running for half this stay, due to a minor tendon tear, and have been happy to get back to my normal route over the past week or so.  It's a fantastic place to run here, around Diamondhead.  It's a great environment for lots of reasons, and purposes.  The positives vastly outweigh the negatives.  I've been swimming even more, seeing sea turtles regularly, on a 200 meter route out in a lane from a local beach.

in Foster botanical garden, in Chinatown

with pineapple ice cream, sort of

gardening; we have two small boxes at Kalani's former school

One of the first photos from this visit, of Christmas decorations at home, from Kalani, our resident artist.  She made them for everyone, listing their favorite color, cat, and food, and Christmas wishes.

each cat's favorite cat was themselves.  I'm not so sure about that.

Si Thep, an early Siam city-state, before Sukhothai

 

We just visited Phetchabun, to a place in the mountains, then back to Si Thep, the Siam kingdom (?) before Sukhothai.  It's tempting to describe that as the first kingdom of Siam, but this kind of large gap in my own awareness of "local" history has me wondering what else I'm not in on.  It turns out that I've read quite a bit on that, from visiting museums and monuments in different places, some of which is referenced here.  Of course this isn't going to be a research paper quality reference of that history, but I'll pass on what I learned, it just includes some gaps and errors, sure even after adding more parts.  Per Wikipedia it was really a city-state; we can start with that, provisionally.

Many people are familiar with the Ayutthaya and Sukhothai kingdoms and eras, to a limited extent.  You can go visit old temple ruins in both places (those are two distinct locations, the capitals of those kingdoms).  We've been to both enough times that I couldn't say how many.  Maybe only 3 to Sukhothai, or maybe more, but definitely more to Ayutthaya.  We were just there, and the time before that wasn't so long ago.

only part of one of many ancient Ayutthaya temples

visiting Sukhothai in 2021

that was for Loy Krathong, in November, a great time to visit there

Then there was also a state / kingdom in the north of Thailand, La Na, that is well-known.  I referenced that in the last description of visiting Ayutthaya, I just didn't mention it:

Maps like that give you an impression that the boundaries of these empires or states were clearly defined over a long period of time, and they may have kept shifting a bit instead.  It still works as general background; for an extended time that's probably roughly where those boundaries were, give or take some minor transitions.

The Si Thep state (or whatever it was) was described as starting 1300 years ago by our guide on that outing.  It might have been harder for them to pin down a specific date when it ceased to be, since it would've declined over time, perhaps for different reasons.  According to him it was well established when the ancient Cambodian (Khmer) state associated with Angkor Wat wasn't developed yet.  It's hard for me to know how to place all that he said though; it seems possible a lot was left out, and some parts could've been wrong.  Not wrong in the sense that he was badly informed, but related to the whole broad picture changing over time as new details emerge (which gets covered in more detail here).

Scanning the Wikipedia article on Si Thep must fill in some mostly correct background:

Hindu-influenced era: 6th–8th century CE

The second phase of occupation (c. 6th–8th century CE) was characterized by the expansion to the outer city. As the monarchy emerged, Vaishnavism took an important role in Si Thep's society, with relationships to India, Funan, Chenla, and Dvaravati cultures.[12] Si Thep was an urban Dvaravati culture center since the 6th century CE, and one of the earliest communities in Thailand that made contacts with India, attested in stone inscription K 978, written in Sanskrit with Pallava script dated to the 6th century CE. So, Si Thep was developed into an early state along with other early Southeast Asian states like Funan, Chenla, and Sri Ksetra.[13] Charles Higham reports of a 7th-century Dvaravati inscription from Si Thep that states, [a new king took the throne]. " A moat enclosed 4.7 square km, while the Khao Klang Nai structure (Thai: เขาคลังใน) dates from the 6th to 7th century.[14]: 303, 308–309 

Buddhism-influenced era: 8th–10th century CE

This phase (c. 8th–10th century CE) was the most prosperous. An irrigation system was developed, and Mahayana Buddhism influenced art as relationships with India, Dvaravati and northeastern cities continued. Si Thep, Sema [fr], and Lopburi sites controlled the routes in the region.[12] The growth of Si Thep led to the establishment of its neighboring city, Tha Rong (Thai: ท่าโรง), located 20 kilometers northward on the bank of the Pasak River, which was later renamed Wichian Buri during the reign of King Nangklao of Rattanakosin.[15] Via Buddhism, several historical evidences supports the connection between Si Thep and another group of Dvaravati-influenced political entities in present Northeast Thailand, Wen Dan.[16]: 91–92 

During this era, Si Thep, together with Lavo, was the center of the mandala-style state, Dvaravati; however, due to the weather-induced migration or the pandemic, Si Thep lost its prosperity, and Lavo became the only center of power in the area until it fell under Khmer hegemony during the 10th to 11th centuries.[17]

Rise of Angkorian: 11th–13th century CE

During this phase (c. 11th–13th century CE), Shaivism was a great influence in Si Thep at Angkorian times, and Si Thep had relationships with Phimai in Mun River basin as Sema [th] ceased to control the routes. Due to Jayavarman VII's policy, Si Thep lost importance and was almost abandoned around the 14th century.[12] Prang Song Phi Nong and Prang Si Thep were built in the 11th to 12th centuries.[14]: 303, 308–309 

After the decline of Si Thep in the 14th century, a new kingdom, Ayutthaya, was subsequently founded southward on the bank of the Chao Phraya River in mid-14th CE, as the succeeded state,[2] as its capital's full name referred to the mandalas of Dvaravati; Krung Thep Dvaravati Si Ayutthaya (Thai: กรุงเทพทวารวดีศรีอยุธยา).[18][19][20][21] The connection between the ancient Mon people, the predominant population of the Dvaravati, and the present-day Thai people in central Thailand, who are the inheritors of Siamese's Ayutthaya, was established in several genetic studies performed in the 20th century.

So they're describing it as a city-state, not really on par with a full-scale kingdom.  It was actually founded in the 4th century (300s CE), but seemed to rise to prominence in the 8th century, as described.  To place that in relation to the Sukhothai time-frame, Google offers this:  "The Sukhothai era (1238–1438) was the first Thai kingdom..."

Some parts of this are especially fascinating, to me.  Apparently there is very little for written references in relation to this city-state, in part because (as I understand it) earlier versions of modern Thailand hadn't developed written language prior to the Ayutthaya era.  My understanding isn't much of a guide, and what I learned from our actual guide didn't seem as convincing as it might have been, even though he worked for the local Fine Arts Department that manages those sites.

Let me elaborate.  It's only recently that they've excavated the sites we saw, and learned that many of them exist.  Of course parts were there to be seen continuously since those centuries back, but not as much as you might expect.  Even the giant main site structure had been buried by soil, or so we were told (by another local; they might've had that wrong).  A fallen down structure being buried and lost is understandable, but not a monument of that size, tens of meters tall.

Other parts were fascinating, and less speculative.  They definitely incorporated aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism in their monuments, and even Khmer artwork, presumably from later on.  As the time periods changed apparently they kept updating design aspects and inclusions.  Indian influence was primary, but not the only external source.  They made parts of the monument, the one in the historical area section, from concrete, a technology our guide said that they would have imported from India.  Of course the Romans did a lot with concrete long before this time-frame, but it's especially fascinating to me that during Europe's "dark ages" they lost the technology to make it (even though it would seemingly be from a very simple recipe).

Across all of this experience it seemed especially odd to me that I'd never heard of Si Thep.  Or actually I probably had; when we visited Lopburi a lot of the historical references in a museum there would've covered that time-frame [or possibly not, per looking up museum display references, cited in a different section here], and that background, and according to our guide some very important artifacts from Si Thep are kept there.  That we saw, no doubt, whether or not the whole background was clear.  

I'm just not great with keeping track.  Of course it was amazing to me three years ago, during that visit, that Thai history was that much more complicated than I had been aware, but not much of a detailed timeline stuck with me.  The more ancient parts were especially fascinating, from 3000 years ago or more, but I'm skipping covering that here.

we hiked up this earlier in the day, which is more difficult than it looks

good views up there

this very zoomed-in temple was playing music we could hear up there, maybe 8 km away

our guide was great, and that historical site dog joined in as a greeter

very old Buddha cave-art in a cave at the top

Lopburi museum reference:

I looked up a museum exhibit reference we visited in Lopburi in December 2022 to see what it said about this history, and if possible about Si Thep:

Si Thep is an hour and a half drive from Lopburi, north of there, so although it's possible that the map scope extends further up, and I cut it off, it seems more likely that Si Thep just didn't make this reference list and map graphic.  It was definitely from that time period, and also heavily influenced by Indian culture, as they describe, but it just wasn't mentioned here.  Strange.

But then if this museum content was from prior to 5 to 10 years ago and much of the scope of ruins at Si Thep were unknown then the omission makes sense.  It just wouldn't have seemed like there was that much up there, never mind a large city-state center complex, and massive monument, second only to Borobudur (in Java, Indonesia) in size from that early time period, according to our guide.  Let's take a look at that, even though similarities or differences might not stand out at a glance:

it's big (from Dec. 2015)

seemingly related to Buddhism

Of course this isn't a claim about tight linkage in background themes between Si Thep and Borobudur, in Indonesia.  Our guide said that it's the only other larger related time period monument in SE Asia.  One might naturally wonder how the later temples at Siem Reap fit into this.  I won't get too far into that, since it's another long history that I'm not all that familiar with, even though I've been there twice.  But citing more related background, about visiting another place, does partly link it together.  

On a separate trip we visited a related Khmer temple at the edge of Thailand, in Sa Kawo province, again in December 2022, which related to this:

Thai fine arts department page on the temple:

Prasat Sdok Kok Thom is located at Nong Ya Kaeo village, Moo 6, Tambon Khok Sung, Amphoe Khok Sung, Sa Kaeo Province and away from the border of Thailand – Cambodia about 1 kilometer.

It was originally called “Prasat Muang Phrao”, and then Prasat Sadok Kok Thom and Prasat Sdok Kok Thom. The word “Sdok Kok Thom” is Khmer language, “Sdok”came from “Sadok” which meant to overgrown, “Kok” meant to reeds, and “Thom” meant to large. Therefore, “Sdok Kok Thom” meant to overgrown with large reeds.

The religious place was built in 1595 B.E., in the reign of King Uthai Thitayavarman II (1593 – 1609 B.E.) to bestow the Brahmin who left the buddhist monkhood named “Sri Chayantaravarman” or his former name “Sadashiva”. This Brahmin was a son-in- law of King Suryavarman I and also an officiant who performed the Royal Coronation Ceremony to King Uthai Thitayavarman II.2

Prasat Sdok Kok Thom was constructed by the style of Khmer architecture.

Those dates are a little confusing because they're based on the Thai dating that sets the time of the Buddha to zero, not Jesus's birth (it's 2568 now; they're 543 years apart).  A related Wikipedia page converts parts over:

Udayadityavarman II (Khmer: ឧទ័យាទិត្យវរ្ម័នទី២) ruled the Angkor Kingdom from 1050 to 1066 A.D. He was the successor of Suryavarman I[1]: 137  but not his son; he descended from Yasovarman I's spouse.

He built the Baphuon Temple to honor the god Shiva, but some of the sculptures are dedicated to Buddha. He also completed the construction of the West Baray reservoir and built the West Mebon, a raised-earth island in the center.[1]: 138 [2]: 103 [3]: 371 

The Sdok Kak Thom temple, located near the present day Thai town of Aranyaprathet, was also constructed during his reign. The temple was home to a gray sandstone stele, 1.51 meters high, with a detailed inscription that recounted the sequence of previous Khmer kings. 

This was from that temple:

And it looks like this:

It loses a little for people who don't read Thai, but this helps place it and other early somewhat local monuments:

Note that the time-frame for that temple fell between 1050 and 1066 (the beginning of the "Angkorian phase," in that other reference), with the main Buddhist related and most prosperous Si Thep time period falling between the 8th and 10th centuries (700s to 900s CE).  Our guide's reference to the main temple being 1300 years old corresponds to this, but that really was the second phase of Si Thep's development, with an earlier Hindu era from the 6th to 8th centuries.

That's probably basically what our guide had been describing.  The mix of different dates tied to different parts of the two sites we visited was probably a little confusing to me, but spelled out more clearly in those text citations it all comes together.

Additional thoughts on the Light and Sound show:

Is anyone still with me, through all of these tangents?  During that light and sound show one thing that came to mind was considering how authentic any presentation about that history could be.  I asked our guide, and he said that they tried to make the clothing (costumes) period specific, based on what little they could find of formal clothing back then.  It wouldn't have been much.  They were dressed like these guys:

Who were "holding up" part of the temple monument here:

I didn't get a good broad-angle shot of that monument section, so here's one from a virtual tour page hosted by the Thai Fine Arts Department that manages the site:

I guess that it doesn't look like much, but for something 1300 years old that was generally lost to time for an extended period it's still impressive, just probably not in good condition compared to the original form.  Of course they have more on the history from other sources; it wouldn't only be based on those ruins, as already covered here.  This reference covers the general area, with background on both sites that we visited, Khao Klang Nai (the Si Thep Historical Park) and Khao Klang Nok, the other monument where the light and sound festival was held.

On the subject of how "lost to history" monuments of this scale could be this was from the Sadok Kok temple we visited in Sa Kaeo province, the one that was part of the Khmer empire:

In 1901 a French explorer told the outside world that it was there.  Thais already knew that, but the historical context and meaning they probably weren't as clear on, although they probably also knew that it was a part of the Cambodian (Khmer) empire.  One particular stone with a lot of writing described important parts of the Khmer history in detail; that's what the citation means "inscriptions discovered there are more important than any inscriptions in Cambodia."  This Wikipedia source on Sdok Kok Thom describes that in detail:

The inscription (classified K. 235) is a 340-line composition, in both Sanskrit and ancient Khmer, carved on a gray sandstone stele 1.51 meters high that stood in the northeast corner of the temple's court. Dating to 8 February 1053, it recounts two and a half centuries of service that members of the temple's founding family provided to the Khmer court, mainly as chief chaplains to kings. In laying out this long role, the text provides a remarkable and often poetically worded look at the faith, royal lineage, history and social structure of the times.

Back to the event theme, it seems like the prints of that period costume fabric would only be an interpretation drawn from later time periods.  The jewelry worn in the dancing they probably didn't have; according to our guide from early relics found they were using copper and tin (so brass, or other alloys), instead of gold in Thailand in that early period.  Of course there couldn't really be a reference to music from then, or dancing style; there isn't much written about the local history and culture, at all.  

So a lot of what we saw in that show was from general, modern Thai culture, informed by the Ayutthaya and Sukhothai era background.  They had the ancient king (in the story) pay respect to Shiva (I think it was him; a Hindu god, at least), so they at least mixed in a little related story line.  I suppose if that particular monument structure was created during the later Buddhist period it might not have all synced.

the related festival sales booths parts were nice

One last tangent:  for being from a rural area myself (in PA) I love small towns in Thailand, and Si Thep had a great feel to it.  We walked around a market area in town and found all sorts of great food for next to nothing, buying fruit and snacks to go with it.  Walking around that festival people seemed incredibly relaxed and friendly, familiar from my own earlier days.  I suppose they're still like that back there now; I visited last a year ago (rural PA), and people there are nice.  As they are in Si Thep.

I would highly recommend Bangkok locals or expats go and check it out.  It's like visiting Sukhothai before developed tourism shifted everything there to a tourism themed hotel, hostel, restaurant, or gift shop.  Actually Sukhothai and Ayutthaya are both great too (you'd be crazy to not eat boat noodles visiting the latter), perfect places to rent a bike and check out at a slow pace, or just to walk around.  But Si Thep adds a local small-town feel, at the cost of them still developing the museum display side of things.

if you do hike up that mountain wear pants (there are mosquitos), carry plenty of water, and take your time