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Published: August 31st 2013
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Back in 2009, when I was traveling my way around Yunnan Province, China, I made friends with several people in my Dali hostel. To this day we're still in touch. One Finnish friend and I have been trying for years to meet up again for a day or tweo. We always manage to travel to the same cities at roughly the same time... I say roughly because we always miss each other by about a week! Finally, this year, he and his girlfriend decided to visit Bangkok. Obviously, this time I'm not passing through, so we were finally able to spend some time together and have some fun.
Before they arrived, I asked what they wanted to do. They said they'd done most of the tourist stuff already, so maybe just explore a neighborhood or two. I immediately suggested Chinatown, as it's quite large and unique. And since both of us have lived in China, it seemed like a good trip down memory lane. And honestly, who didn't anticipate I'd end up visiting sooner rather than later?
We met up around noon and took the BTS and the express boat up the river. Getting off, we realized we could
really go in any direction, so we just started walking. We chose our random path by whichever way looked the most interesting at each turn.
We spent a few hours in Chinatown. I honestly had no idea it was so large. I visited it last year with a friend, saw quite a bit, but I'm convinced that even now I've only seen a fraction of it! We found traditional medicine shops, sweets shops (had to buy a few!), lots of little restaurants and shops selling incense and paper offerings. I didn't find much in the way of tea shops, but perhaps I'll find them on another wander through.
Hot and a bit tired, we took a taxi to Lumpini Park. It's the biggest green space in the city and usually quite relaxing and peaceful. I say relaxing because right now, there are protestors camped there (it's clean and orderly) but there are also loud speeches and music to go along with it. We found that sitting on the far side of the lake helped a bit and we relaxed in the shade and ate our Chinese desserts.
The sun was starting to set, but it was too
early for dinner. Of course, the only logical choice is to find some cheap beer. We found a sidewalk restaurant and I ordered us three using Thai! It's my first time trying out my new (and shaky) language skills, but the 6 sentence conversation went pretty smoothly. We enjoyed our beers while sweating nearly as much as the bottles.
For dinner we went to a place I knew from my CELTA days, located right around the corner. Great food, good prices, good service. I made sure that they both ate several popular Thai dishes so they'd get the full experience. We were so full when we left we could barely walk.
We slowly walked back to their hotel where I bid them farewell. Hopefully I'll see them again in less than four years!
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