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Published: April 7th 2008
Weekend Market
Hmmm. Seen these before anyone?Well - where was I up to? Having finished all of the preps which were going to get done before we left we were ready on Sat 8 March for the trip to the Airport - and beyond. A weigh-in of the bags showed we were a little over-weight so a quick trip to the Post Shop to send a few kilos ahead solved that one - a little expensive but certainly better then having to pay for Excess Luggage! Cautionary tale here is that although the box got to England in time to meet us 3 weeks later (only just though) the nice Post Shop box had split along each end at the top and we lost a couple of things - even though I had put parcel tape on every seam. Anyway, Brendan and Kyra took us out to the airport and we took off right on time. For those who have not flown with them before I can highly recommend Thai-Air.
Did I mention that two days before our departure we had a message from Eve - our Thai girl who had been boarding with us for 3years - that her family was no longer able to
Weekend Market
Shop 'til you drop?
meet us and put us up for our first 4 days in Bangkok? Threw a bit of a spanner in the works did that but after a little time on the Internet I found a Hotel for a good price and we were able to take a taxi there once we arrived. Was actually quite good for us as Wendy did not travel well - again - so it gave us those days to get over our jetlag in our own time. The other thing which could have gone quite wrong was my selection of hotel location - I tried to get one in the same general direction as the airport but my Thailand Map is quite old (it was the one we used during our last visit in Jan ’02) and I was blissfully unaware that there is a new airport in a totally different direction to the old! As it turned out I had chosen one which was sort of in-between them both - luckily, or we could have been all night getting there - as it was we were at the hotel a little over an hour after touch-down.
We spent our time visiting the weekend
ChinaTown
Small snack. market at Chatuchak (Sunday was our first day there), a visit to China-Town, walking to a nearby shopping centre (if you call a 1hr walk to get there “nearby”) but eating all meals in the hotel - we were not sure enough of the local food-stalls to trust them without guidance so it was fried rice with prawns or pork with boiled rice for a while - but Oh how this was to change! Got a lot of my book read (and Wendy some cross-stitch) and generally lazed around getting our body-clocks back in sync - I had purchased a recent translation of “War and Peace” which I thought would last the two legs of air travel and a bit more besides - at almost 1400 pages it is certainly living up to expectations and if you have never been brave enough to try it I can certainly recommend it as a really good read - if you have the time! Wendy was OK again after a couple of days so we enjoyed it a bit more after that. I had managed to break my Laptop on the second day (don’t turn off the power while it is still booting
Just rest a while
Fallen down brick wall - familiar to anyone? up!) so was reduced to using the free one in the hotel lobby - when no-one else was lining up for it.
We contacted Pom and arranged for him to collect us from the hotel on the Wednesday and take us to his house for a couple of days. Pom was an AFS student who stayed with us in 1996 and he is now Catering Manager in a big hotel in Bangkok (used to be the Bangkok Hilton) and lives with his Mum in one of the suburbs to the north-west. After a very nice lunch at the Swissotel Nai Lert Park - on Pom’s account of course - we walked for an hour or so to Jim Thompson’s house for the guided tour. Had to stop on the way back at a shopping centre for a fruit juice and a nice quiet walk around in the air conditioning!! It was just at the start of the hot season and, while it wasn’t yet into full swing it was certainly plenty hot enough for us! We quickly discovered the walkways under the light rail track which are certainly the only way to negotiate the intersections - and watch the
Breakfast.
On the road to the Floating Market - roadside stalls now OK with our Local Guide. traffic. Fascinating to watch all of the motorbikes (mostly step-thru’s around the 100 - 150cc size carrying between 1 and 4 people variously with/without helmets and sitting, standing in the gap - for the small fry - or riding side-saddle for the ladies) filter through the traffic stopped at the lights and form up in front just waiting for the lights to change - then they are all off like a swarm of angry bees - swerving in and out of the traffic like skiers on a slalom course. The comment from Pom is that they drive like maniacs with no regard for their own safety - but if you squash one it is your fault! Another interesting sight from above was a small shrine on a corner of an extremely busy intersection - it is obviously a popular stopping-off place for worship on the way home from work but we could not help but notice that there seemed to be a lot of pushing and reaching and kind of “non-reverent” behaviour which we would not have expected in a place of worship. However, we are assured that that is quite normal and acceptable - just different from our experience!
Pom took us back to the floating markets we had enjoyed so much last time - we left at 7 am the next day as it is a morning market some 2 hrs drive away. On the way we saw the Salt Farms on the low-lying land near the sea. They are like paddy-fields with the salt water evaporating in the sun. The water is pumped around by windmills and stirred up by small tractors (about the size of a small ride-on mower) which have drums rather than wheels and float across the water. Once the salt is dried it is raked into small piles which are then put into large heaps on the “shore”. There are lots of stalls on the side of the road selling the salt.
The Floating Market was just as fascinating as we remembered and we hired a boat to take us around - we opted for the traditional paddle-power rather than the big, fast, noisy “long-tail” boats which seemed so out of place among the crowded floating stalls. It was about here that we remembered why, the last time we were here, we stopped showing any interest at all in anything which
was for sale - everything we vaguely took an interest in ended up being bought for us and stuffed in our backpack before we could object. It was happening again until we had to have some very stern words - like, “This is your mother speaking to you! …….. ”
It was during this two day stay that we met Pom’s friend Pahn - who is not his girlfriend (yet!!). She works at the Hotel in the same office and they get along just great so …. maybe ……….. one day …. ? Pahn joined us for dinner the first night then a week or so later for our trip to Khorat. After we had been to the Floating Market Pom took me to meet his friend Pao (who was an AFSer to Aussie) who is a bit of a Computer expert (must be ’cause he fixed the problem I had caused with no loss of any data at all - I was most grateful) and while we were out we were hearing reports of Pom’s Mum’s progress back to Bangkok - she had been away on business and was variously going to meet us at the eating house
for dinner, go home first or take a bus from some intermediate stop. Bangkok traffic dictated that she met us at home then we all went out to the dinner - where we were joined by her brother (whom we had met last visit) and Pao who had by then fixed the computer. Hooray for mobile phones ’cause the plan was changing by the minute.
Anyway, our time in Bangkok was over and the next day we set off - Pom driving us and his Mum - on our way to Chiang Mai - which will be the subject of my next Blog.
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Esta Mostert
non-member comment
Pom has grown up
Hi Ian and Wendy - I had to double take on Pom. Wow, he has become a fine young man. I will remember the tip about looking interested in anything on the market for future reference. That boat looks too fast for me too. I don't know how Wendy does it, one day in Bangkok and already a tour company with her name on the coach - coaches are not buses I was told. All the best. I am looking forward to read the rest. Enjoy!