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Published: February 2nd 2007
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Suan Lum Night Market near Lumpini Park
The giant wheel was brought in from Paris! I am writing this back at home but the last couple of days in Bangkok were really fun and packed with great things that I wanted to finish this blog with them.
I flew back from Ko Samui on Saturday, they have a really lovely little airport with huts instead of concrete buildings and funny little open busses to take you to the plane, a cute place! In the evening I then met Florian and Steffi again and we had dinner together with two friends of theirs at the Suan Lum Night Market near to Lumpini Park. The market is really nice, the things there are slightly more up-market than for example the Chiang Mai night market. Better quality and nicer stands and not too crowded. I bought some bits and pieces for the flat, table sets, a vase and chopsticks. We then had dinner at one of the food areas, very yummy.
On the Sunday I had a packed agenda, I wanted to go to the Chatuchak Weekend Market and then to the Khaosan road area and meet up with Susie and AJ, two girls I met at The Sanctuary. It ended up being a great day!
I took the Skytrain (how did one survive in Bangkok before they built this??) to the Chatachuk Market. The walk to the market was up a road full of little amulet sellers, the little lucky charms with buddhas on them. Chatachuk Market is a gigantic place full of stands selling everthing any tourist could need.. clothes, buddhas, shoes, silver, postcards, handicrafts, everything..! I got there very early as I was told not to go there in the afternoon where it is a) too hot and b) too full and it was a wise decision. I was there at 9 am and all the stands were open or opening and it was cool and emptyish. I didn't see much I would have wanted but it was a fun outing and I found a lovely brass Ganesh god for Tom back home :-) I then walked over to the Plant Market and then on to the Farmers Market, a lovely clean place where they sell organic fresh foods and where they have great food stands. A great place to have lunch, only a short walk from the Chatachuk Market and really calm and clean.
The best thing I bought on this
trip were the two Nancy Chandler Maps for Chiang Mai and Bagkok. They cost 180 bhat each but are "hand drawn" and have brilliant tips about fun shops and places I would never have found otherwise. They have detailled plans of the bigger markets and that helps immensly.
I then took a little river boat and then a Tuk Tuk to the National Gallery where they have a little week-end art market. Nothing exciting but I found a nice little painting for 100 bhat (yes, 100, that is 2 Euros!), a nice souvenir :-) It is in walking distance from Khaosan Road which is the backpackers centre. Here are loads of guesthouses, pubs, market stands and street food stalls selling banana rotis, pad thai noodles and of course fruit! A bit loud for my taste but definitely worth the visit! And double so for me as a found a lovely little designer shop where I bought a beautiful handbag (thanks Susie for telling me a story about the holy men in Nepal making these bags for themselves that are supposed to keep a lifetime. It made it even more special!) and a lovely ring, also handmade in Nepal.
Near to exhaustion I then made my way over to Mae Kaidee, a delicious little vegetarian restaurant. I met Susie and AJ there and we had a lovely evening showing off our freshly shopped treasures and remembering our stay at The Sanctuary. At 10pm I finally made my way back to Frasers Place and fell into bed!
After a last jog in Lumpini Park the next morning I made my way to the supermarket to fill the last bits of space in my backpack with papayas and thai veggies and then took a taxi to the airport. Now I am back home and at work, it was a fabulous holiday and I can only recommend Thailand, a great place! Even Bangkok is definitely worth a longer stay, with every day I was there I liked the city more. I can fully understand Florian and Steffi living there, the air is much better than it was 10 years ago and there are loads of fun things to do and see and great people to meet.
Bye for now and Thanks for having followed me the past weeks :-)
Swasdee-ka
Tina
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