A different side to Bankok
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2006
1
121
155
Trip End
May 27, 2008
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Bangkok,
Thailand
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
According to our 'trusty' LP, Bangkok doesn't have much in the way of budget rooms so we checked into 'Peachy's Guesthouse' as recommended in the book and I have to say I didn't feel very 'peachy' when I sat on my bed to discover it wasn't a mattress at all but a wooden board covered in material with seams that 'looks' like a sprung mattress. It was a pretty dinghy place with corridors in the style of a prison as opposed to a guesthouse but a room is a room and you only sleep there, plus I always appreciate that it beats sleeping on the streets-I just hope our stuff is still there later!
I e-mailed Eed to let him know that we'd like to meet him tomorrow and gave him my number.
Water ferry around Bangkok
We headed out for food and unfortunately chose somewhere that had very slow service and dished up Thai green curry containing these nasty green leaves that gave the entire dish a revolting aniseed flavour which was so bad that even I couldn't eat it. I know what you're thinking.....me leaving food.....it must have been very bad....well it was but Ollie was starving so at least it didn't go to waste. Luckily a roti (pancake) stall is never far away in SE Asia.We went to check out the famous Kao San Road which is described as the 'Broadway' of Bangkok, full of flashing lights and buzzing with people. However, it was a Tuesday night and seemed pretty dead to us. We resorted to finding a bar that had a happy hour going (more Samsong buckets) where we met a Sweedish couple (Robin and ???). We had a long chat with them and persuaded them to come with us to find a club. We didn't have much luck as most were not that busy so we ended up in a pool hall and when it closed at 12 it was dead on the streets....so much for the buzzing nightlife in Bangkok. Clearly we were in the wrong part of the city since many a man asked if we wanted to go and see a 'Ping Pong' show but since none of us were that interested in raquet sports [ ;-) ] we gave it a miss and tried to get into another club as a last resort. They wanted something stupid like 300baht entry (which funny enough we'd pay at home but in Thailand that gets a nice room for the night) so we gave up and went home.
Today we met up with Eed, the local man we'd met in the cave a couple of days ago.
Big backpack
We went and grabbed some breakfast at an amazing little cafe called Mr Yins (on the corner of Soi Rambuttri and Chana Songkram, west of Khao San rd towards the river, along the alley where 711 is). I had an amazing omlette with my first taste of propper cheese for a long time (no Laughing Cow triangles!) and filled with bacon, onions and peppers, and homemade yoghurt and honey. Great milkshakes and not a bad price either. We got a bus to Eed's house since he didn't like driving in the city due to the horrendous traffic. Eed lives in a small town on the very outskirts of Bangkok, about an hour by bus. When the bus dropped us off we each got on a motorbike taxi to his house. In his yard he had a pet monkey in a cage....now you are probably thinking how cruel that is (and it was very fat due to lack of exercise and the food it ate) but to some people in other countries they aren't aware of issues such as animal welfare like we are and it was very much loved by the family so we were hardly going to preach our opinions to them. They also had some extremely rowdy geese in the yard (not quite sure why, maybe eggs?) and the house was fairly simple with 2 bedrooms, a living area with a computer and television, a bathroom (with a hot shower which was unusual for us), a basic kitchen but the cooking area was some kind of stove in the yard. We were kindly given our own room (well matress on the floor but that's all a bed is anyway?) although it belonged to his son and they'd kicked him out into their room.
Maybe I'm carrying too much in my backpack?
As soon as we arrived, Eed insisted he weighed my backpack as he couldn't believe the size and it felt heavy to him. Low and behold it was 18kg which is what I expected it to be. He however looked shocked that I was carrying it around. To be fair I did have quite a heavy parcel I was trying to send home to ditch a good kilo or two but had to go back to bangkok to do that. We met his elderly mother, who spoke no English, and saw his son again, who also spoke no English, and a woman who we believed was maybe the housekeper.To Ollie's joy, Eed gave us the use of his motorbike which was some powerful thing unlike most that we'd hired. We zipped to the local market and had some lunch from a small stall which cost us about 50p and was great (fried noodles or fried rice of some description I imagine!). To be honest I doubt the town had ever seen Westerners as there were no 'local sights' or hotels to be found. We decided to repay Eed for his hospitality by buying a gift for his family. The market was fairly basic and we looked at buying flowers since we couldn't find much else. Now Ollie had his heart set on buying this special flower arrangement however I was somewhat weary that it may be for something like a funeral wreath and we may offend them. We bought them and hoped for the best however whn we presented them to Eed, his face dropped and he looked a bit angry with us. He pointed to some kind of religious figure above the television and I knew we'd possibly offended him. We dug out our Thai dictionary and tried to explain that in our culture you buy flowers as a gift to say thank-you but I'm not sure how well it sank in since when his wife returned home he said something to her and they put the flowers up by the religious figure.
Group pic
That evening, Eed took us out in his car and we drove around the mangroves near his house as he wanted to show us some wildlife - we saw some Eegrets and a big bunch of monkeys. He then took us to a pretty temple/museum but we couldn't go in as it was late. We then went across the road to a restaurant he recommended on the riverfront - it was fairly pricey for our budget but we decided to treat ourselves. We had a fantastic curried crab and some other dishes and it was extremely tasty and worth the money.
On the way back to Eed's we noticed some kind of festival going on so we stopped to have a wander around. It was religious festival at the local temple and we had a look inside - it was beautiful with very ornate decor and a huge chandellier. There was food, a big bouncy castle and lots of rides and stalls but we had to get home.
Back at Eed's his wife (Bood) had returned home along with Eed's brother and young nephew (Parameet). We were greeted with 'good morning!' and tried to explain that it was now 'evening'. Parameet went to a private school and was studying English so he raced to get his workbooks so we could practice with him. However he kept pointing to pictures and speaking to us in Thai which was confusing at first, but I eventually understood that he was asking me if I liked (chawp? you like?) or didn't like the object in the picture (chai or mai chai? yes or no?). The whole family thought our Thai pronounciation was hysterical and we laughed a lot (although mostly at ourselves!). I told Parameet what the pictures were in English and he repeated. He then wrote Ollie's and my name in the Thai alphabet for us and we wrote our names in English. It was a fun night (despite having to politely eat lots of sour green mango - the Thais love the stuff!) although we were somewhat shocked when we asked if the other lady (who we thought was the housekeeper) was his sister and he casually replied ' oh no, that's Joan my second wife'. We then realised that by us having a room they must all be in the one which would have been a squeeze so it was exceptionally kind of them to give us a room as we'd have happily slept on the floor in the living area!
Tomorrow Eed plans to take us somewhere although I didn't understand where he was talking about. Then we have to head to another town to get a boat to Ko Kood, another island for a couple of days before our Thai visa expires.
