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Published: March 20th 2008
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Grand Palace
Someone important may live here. I don't remember Hello All,
Let's catch you up with the later half of our Bangkok trip...I promise there is more to come! Just a quick mention that currently we are on Koh Samui and doing great in our second week of school. After today we will both have three (nearly perfect) teaching practices under our belts. Wednesday's TP was the best so far... right on the beach! Yes, life is good in Thailand! Well here is the next few days in our Bangkok tour:
Getting to Know You, Bangkok
Well after our tour of “sexy lady” and “defecation” analogies from Max this lady was seriously pooped! I crashed for hours while Brian smoked a cigar and watched over the town from our balcony. When I awoke he had observed enough of a charming downstairs street vendor to tell me that this is where we must eat. We walked downstairs and watched from afar this sweetly aggressive and over ambitious Thai sidewalk restaurant owner force passerby into tables while slapping menus in their hands. He did the same to us as we approached but unlike the others before, we had actually wanted to eat there. The café was in the alley
Palace Guard
Interesting... outside our hotel and used a store front location to prepare the food and the actual street itself to serve the guests in. This was much, much more than a street vendor—this was a restaurant (for old town Bangkok at least). We all played a kind of Wayne’s World “Game off…Game on” scene when cars drove through: guests scooted in and servers scrambled off the street to allow for vehicle clearance. Foreshadowing the rest of the meals we would eat in Thailand, our first real Thai style meal was excellent.
The next day we thought it was time to venture out of the dirty old town side of Bangkok and find the metropolitan area that expats and travelers rave about. We started with a two dollar, thirty minute cab drive to Siam Square where our driver dropped us off in front of Starbucks and across the way from an Outback Steak House. We walked straight into Siam Center, one of the newer malls (among a block of many) with a towering array of floors filled with every hip Western and Asian designer you could think of. Knowing right away that we were neither hip enough nor ready enough for
A place on the river
That's all I can tell. These pictures are so small when you look at them to load and I don't feel like taking the time to look at the big versions...too bad the fast-paced, big city Asian mall scene, we walked straight out to find ourselves again face to face with Starbucks. Our curiosity and need for hometown comforts won and moments later we were getting our bearings with a Thailand traveler’s guide and green tea latte and frappuccino. We then decided to start our window shopping in chronological order with MBK, the largest and oldest mega mall in Bangkok. MBK is eight stories. Each story was dedicated to a different industry or item. There was a story for cell phones, story for clothes and shoes, story for food, story for electronics, story for furniture and so on. After a few hours of looking it was time for lunch and this is when I found the greatest food court in the world! In Thailand they do this often: you get a card as you walk in, roam around the dizzying array of international food vendors, order and swipe your card, get a drink and swipe your card, eat, perhaps get dessert (and swipe your card) and then you leave, swipe your card and pay your balance. It was not so much the system I loved but the international assortment of food. In
On The River
That's one of our guides that hardly spoke English and the French lady...and us. America an international buffet or food court consists of American, Italian, Chinese and Mexican. In Thailand it is Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Muslim, Greek, Italian, Australian, vegetarian versions of all and so on. I’ve never seen so many ethnic food menus in my life, let alone in one place!
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After a huge day of mall gazing we found it time to take the Skytrain to Silom road (another huge metropolitan area). The train was very easy. It was costly—much more than the bus and only a bit less than a taxi. It was clean, fast and air-conditioned—all fabulous adjectives in Thailand. We got off near Lumphini Park which is a huge city park that rivals the likes of Central Park, Millennium Park and even the famous Civic Center Park of PD. A huge beautiful lake scattered with lily pads and peddle-boats lies in the center of the park with a path that follows around it with masses of Thai joggers. Stretches of green with Cherry Blossom trees and Thai styled verandas line the perimeter of the park. This is where we sat and took in this new side of the city—looking down at the lake and then up to
Thai Money
Their money is called Baht. One thousand baht is worth about 33 dollars. If we were from England and had pounds we would have twice as many baht:( Oh well, at the end of the day we're American and that's AWESOME the skyscrapers.
From the park we walked in a big daze down Silom road amazed by the towering buildings and bustle of the sidewalk underneath the famous Skytrain. As the evening fell we found ourselves on Patpong road—one of the biggest red light districts in Thailand, funny though, it didn’t seem too sleazy. There was a massive night market that ran through the middle of the street where you could buy anything you could imagine. Of course, Brian was constantly called over by club owners and, well, hookers. I suppose it gets much worse as the night goes on though.
We called it an evening rather early that night—our lingering jet lag was calling loudly. Luckily jet lag also helped us to wake at an ungodly hour but led to the most interesting sights we’ve seen yet. 5AM we were out the door and headed to the Chao Phyra River for sunrise. The city was quite serene and innocent at that hour but what surprised me most were the Thais dressed in uniforms off for a long day at work that would sit and meditate somewhere as busy and loud as an over pass bridge. It is amazing
Wealthy river house
This is a wealthy persons house along the river. Not too bad. how they can tune it all out and focus whenever and wherever they need or want to. From here we followed a local looking crowd through an alley and found ourselves on a trek through a very traditional neighborhood. First we passed through a school just observing the everyday activity of seeing one’s kids off to school. We passed through small streets with modest yet still privileged looking homes at arm’s length to either side of us. Local women were out with their makeshift kitchens cooking breakfast and serving it to their regular customers in plastic bags. The customers take the bags to eat them at their destination or grab a plastic fork to eat as they walk. We continued on in this maze of everyday life on the other side of the world. We eventually deemed our stomachs ready for a truly Thai styled meal and sat with one of the friendliest of vendors for a bag of noodles and a bag of chicken with vegetables. With pleasantly full bellies off one single dollar we crossed back into the bustling side of Bangkok and returned to our hotel for a well deserved 7AM nap.
On this day, our
final day of Bangkok, we took it easy with a ferry boat ride down the river back to Silom where the first stop off the boat is The Oriental Hotel—well known as one of the world’s finest hotels. In fact, before leaving for Thailand Brian and I were lucky enough to come across a pilot travel show by my stepmother’s brother staring their father, the fabulous Patrick Macnee. And just as Patrick sat in the beautiful lobby love struck by a gorgeous Thai girl, we sat struck with awe over the magnificence of the marble hotel and its view of the Chao Phyra through its tropical garden. After two $10+ drinks and a Cuban cigar for Brian we were off for our first experience with Muay Thai boxing. And since he knows much more about pro fighting, I’ll leave this experience to be tackled by one of Brian’s blogs.
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