One Night in Bangkok

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  Bangkok, Thailand
Monday, February 13, 2006

M: It's cliche, but we have been singing it to each other off and on since we got here. Not that we've had any wild Bangkok nights, but there you have it. I mean, it's a HUGE, overwhelming city that just exhausts us during the day. I don't know how you go crazy at night too. But that's a whole other thing. This is the first time in ages that we've been some place that neither one of us speaks the language at all, so we've both had some guilt about that. And for some reason, "thank you" just keeps falling out of my head, but everyday I relearn it.

We had a bit of an adventure getting here. Basically, our flight out of Brisbane was cancelled after we had already sat on the plane for an hour and then waited in the airport, etc. So, we spent an extra (VERY cushy night) in Brisbane and then flew to Sydney to fly here. It was a little crazy, but we just went with it and everything seemed to work fine

Condom People?

.

Anyway, we got in really late the first night and the first morning, we sort of tried to get our bearings. We had lunch of very spicy soup with prawns, rice, fried fish, some curried duck, more fish in a chile sauce and mango with sticky rice and taro with coconut milk for dessert with Jessie's friend from college, who is a Bangkok native. After that, we felt a little better able to sort out the city. Only a little more capable, though. We journeyed to Siam Square, which was very cool in that there were all these little shops with extra fun fashions all done by local designers. It was very Project Runway, or at least what we remember from last year.

The next day, we got up early and headed to the river to take a boat trip. Jessie had read this whole thing about it and we were both really excited by the possibilities. These were our first views of temples and they were pretty amazing, but we were decided not to get templed out too soon. Instead, we got out and started walking around. As it turns out, without a plan in this vast city, people feel like they should help us find something to do. This extremely nice man looked at our map and helped us plan out our morning by suggesting several things to do, hiring us a tuk-tuk (and making sure he didn't overcharge us) and sending us on our way

Condoms 'a light

. So, that morning, we saw the 4 Buddhas (sitting, standing, sleeping and Chinese) and the Giant Buddha (over 32 meters of gold glory).

J: And, while we were at the 4 Buddhas another man (there is something funny about the middle-aged Thai men chatting us up) sat with us for probably at least 20 minutes talking to us about the Buddhas and about what else we were doing for the rest of the day and the upcoming Buddhist holiday. He was very sweet and very chatty. That afternoon we headed to the weekend market ("THE" weekend market) - Chatuchak Market. It is described as an "open air" market, but well I really don't consider covered stall after covered stall after covered stall (on and on and on for what seems like at least a mile) "open air." I found it to be extremely overwhelming and claustrophobic (M: Well, there were also about a zillion people there and there was about zero space for anyone). But it is still an incredible experience. So many things to buy: clothes, souvenirs, crafty things, food, etc. Pretty much whatever you want you can find, unless you just want some plain, lightweight t-shirts without prints on them as that proved to be so challenging that we left without them (we are still searching). It is an experience (M: Actually, an experience we plan to have again several times. By then, we'll be better bargainers too).

Condoms DO Grow on Trees!

That night we went to dinner at a place we read about in our guide book called Cabbages & Condoms. The proceeds from the restaurant go toward sex education and HIV/AIDS prevention programs in Thailand. The food was great (M: I know there are a couple people reading this blog who are interested in food, so we had spring rolls, which were amazing, chicken satay* and a very, very spicy green curry), but the decoration was even better. Hopefully the pictures will show some of it. And to top it off, instead of after dinner mints they give you condoms.

Yesterday, Sunday, in the morning we went to Jim Thomspon's house. Jim Thompson, in case you are as ignorant as I, was an American entrepreneur, schooled as an architect, who helped to make the Thai silk industry more international. He disappeared mysteriously in 1967 while vacationing in Malaysia. His home in Bangkok was made into a museum of sorts and added on to so there is now a restaurant and huge gift shop there. It was definitely very interesting, the house and the various items he had collected, mostly art, are beautiful. In the afternoon we decided to leave Bangkok and head out to the Damnoen Saduk Floating Market. After an hour or so bus ride and checking into a hotel we decided to grab some food from a cart (yes, cooked there) and were quickly joined by another middle-aged Thai man who came to our rescue to help us order our food. He was with his two children and was really excited to practice his English. He was the sweetest man and bought us dinner (about US$1). We talked with him for a long while, right before an insane deluge. Yep, that's right...I know you are all shocked, more rain.

This morning we got up early and got on a little boat with two other women and headed into the floating market

Floating Market 1

. Honestly, I think this would be an ideal way to get my produce on the weekends. Although I see myself in a kayak instead of a cute little wooden boat, but hey, it is still the same basic idea, right? So apparently the floating market has gotten extremely touristy and less used by the locals, but I did observe a number of the women exchanging their goods, whether they be cooked foods or fruits or vegetables. And it was captivating watching the women who were cooking in their boats. I watched this one woman for about five minutes as she was making what looked like little rice paper balls with filling (but really I have no idea). She had this perfect system with two little cookers. She would spread out the dough in a similar fashion to a crepe and put on the cover. Then she would take the cover off the other and add two small dollops of some sort of filling. Next she cut the circle in half and perfectly folded up the thin dough over the filling and then scooped it off the cooker and onto a large plate. It was surely an art form.

We are back in Bangkok tonight, but planning to leave again tomorrow for an island a little to the east...so we gleckel on.

* After some research, it appears that it is safe to eat chicken here (that's what we understand, but are being cautious), but NOT in Vietnam.

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Floating Market 2

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