Back to Bangkok
Trip Start
Nov 04, 2007
1
21
62
Trip End
May 03, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Just a super quick entry to say that we're in Bangkok fine - arrived yesterday morning on the overnight train from Chiang Mai. All is fine and good - and we should be meeting our friend Emma in a few hours when she flies in from London. We don't know if we'll get a chance to update the blog over the next few days so we'll wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR now, just in case.
All the gossip (?!) to follow at a later date...
Update from Bangkok - 7th January 2008
We've now been in Bangkok for 11 days and have neglected to update our loyal blog readers on what we're up to, which we gather has been causing some consternation and withdrawal symptoms
Bunny outfits
. Sorry!Our friend Emma arrived from London on the 29th (well, she got to the hotel at 1am on the 30th...) and we immediately launched into a pretty busy five days - beginning with Chatuchak Market on the 30th (Emma was allowed about six hours sleep...generous us ;) )
Chatuchak Market is possibly the biggest market ever. We have no idea whether this is true or not but it certainly feels like it. Unlike markets in England where you can have a fair go at getting to every stall in a morning, we spent most of the day at Chatuchak and probably saw about a quarter of the stalls. Although we got lost and doubled back on ourselves a few times so did see quite a few twice. Or three times. Chatuchak appears to have become more tourist-orientated since we were there two years ago, with considerably less chance of happily browsing wooden ornaments one minute and rounding a corner into piles of dead fish the next. We didn't do too badly with our shopping - and Emma quickly got into the bartering in a way we found quite incredable considering she'd only been in the country a few hours and was considerably lacking in sleep. Plus Chatuchak is very crowded, very hot and dark and stuffy inside each section.
Chatuchak does still have a pet section, which we went to look at in the spirit of keeping an open mind about these things
Doggy outfits
. It wasn't actually as bad as you might imagine (in comparison to UK animal sales, which is not at all the same thing as saying we thought it was good). The most distressing sight was a load of ridiculously young squirrely things who were surely not weaned yet but were being sold all the same. The main creatures being sold were puppies and baby rabbits. All dressed up in little jackets. Some had bows in their hair, some had little hats on. There were whole market stalls dedicated to selling dog-dressing-up paraphenalia, including an entire Elvis outfit if you should so wish. Dressing up dogs seems to be a bit of a craze over here.That Sunday turned out to be quite a random day. We got back to the hotel to dump our shopping and headed out again, via river boat to the Khao San Road (may as well continue to baptise Emma with fire). We ate in Mai Kaidee's (our favourite veggie Thai place) and managed to find the owner - Mai (Kaidee isn't her surname - apparently the restaurant name means 'Mai sells well'. And there was us thinking it was a dig at McD's) who sold us one of her new cookbooks (autographed) and insisted on giving us a classical Thai dance demonstration. I think she wanted us to join in. We hadn't drunk enough for that. Then Dave and Ali (the friends we'd been with in Luang Prabang) walked in, which seemed to be quite according with the random bizarreness of the whole occasion
Mai of Mai Kaidee's
. There isn't space here to write about everything we have done over our time here, so I shall give a quick run-down:
Monday 31st: Went to find a venue for NYE and got fitted for suits to spend our Christmas money. Thank goodness Emma was with us as we had *no* idea! Avoided objectionable little man who kept telling us how he was richer than us and used sweatshop labour and found a nice shop where the people didn't pressurise us and the suits seemed to be a really high quality.
Tuesday 1st: Went to the fabric market for Emma to buy some Thai silk. Visited Wat Pho (big lying down Buddha plus lots and lots of people praying the royal princess didn't die. It didn't work). Went up the Golden Mount for a good view of Bangkok then got a canal boat back to the main shopping area for dinner (not the same as a nice relaxing canal barge in the UK. We had tarpaulin we could pull up the sides when the boat went so fast we would get drenched)
Wednesday 2nd: Went to see the Royal Palace, oblivious to the fact that the princess had just died. Consequently could only get into the watty bit of it. Which is the prettiest bit anyhow. Emma had to wear a silly Hawaiian shirt because she is immoral and corrupting. In the evening we went to see The Golden Compass (actually really good) in the swanky cinema in the posh shopping mall. You have to stand for the national anthem at the beginning, which is accompanied by a little film entitled 'We Love Our King!'. Can you imagine if they tried to introduce something like that in the UK?
River boat ..... rather busy!
!Thursday 3rd: Took a boat trip around the Khlongs (canals). Were supposed to see all manner of things, including a floating market. Trip was very pretty and it was nice to see all the little Thai houses built over the canals, but apart from a couple of ladies in boats trying to sell tourist tat (which I don't think really qualifies as a market!) we didn't really see any of the things we were supposed to. Ah well. Then went to the electronics mall/market and on a spa goose-chase (dontcha just love guide-books?) culminating in us giving up and going back to the hotel, only to find somewhere really nice for a Thai massage a few doors along. Had a drink after dark in the very swanky Vertigo bar on the top of a sky scraper hotel, 60 floors up. Very cool.
Friday 4th: Emma leaves at 4am. Nice timing. We read books and do not-much for the day. Oh, we collected our Indian visas. Yay.
Saturday 5th: We read books and do not-much for the day. Had our second measuring for our suits. Went to the cinema again to see Elizabeth (bit rubbish) but find the Nokia Ultra Screen, which is like being in business class on an aeroplane with pairs of seats that recline to almost flat, blankets, pillows and your drinks and popcorn served to you
Strange fruit
. :)Sunday 6th: We read books and do not-much for the day. (Notice a theme here?!). Go to the Khao San road to get Hugh a hair cut and eat at Mai Kaidee's. Unfortunately share a table with a lone-traveller who has been on his own too much. Cue being talked at about a whole load of rubbish for an hour. Apparently the world is going to ritually cleanse itself on 23rd December 2012 when the sun lines up with the centre of the milky way. Marvellous. (???!)
Which brings us up to today. And I'm sure you can tell from the pattern what we might have done today....
You might have noticed that I have glossed straight over New Year's Eve. This is not because we did not have a good time, as we did, but rather that I'm not sure how to write about it in a family-friendly fashion. (Now that's got you intruiged!) We went to a nice restaurant and bar run by a development charity. However there really isn't any way that I can get around telling you all that we spend our New Year's Eve with a giant santa made of condoms. (Now you see why I've left this to the end!). The restaurant is called Cabbages and Condoms as the main aim of the charity is to make condoms as cheap and widespread as cabbages
Hit it son!
. Apparently they are responsible for Thailand responding very quickly to the HIV crisis and bringing the birth rate in Thailand down to 2.something (from 7 I think). And their restaurant is very beautiful. Built around a central courtyard with fairy lights draped liberally from the trees and bushes and multicoloured condom lampshades along the walls. There were condom decorated Christmas trees and a contraceptive-pill superman. If you can imagine all this and come out with an image of something that was actually pretty classy then well done to you - if we hadn't seen it for ourselves we wouldn't believe it!Anyhow, we fly out to Calcutta on 9th so we have just over a day left in Thailand to have a final fitting for our suits and go to the post office to offload all the things that poor Emma couldn't carry back with her!
Where we're staying
Back at P&R again - see our first entry from Bangkok
Good places for veggies to eat
Mai Kaidee's, behind burger king at the end of Khao San Road
Bug and Bee cafe by Sala Daeng Skytrain
Also found two Indian places that are really good near our hotel - Indian Hut, which is quite smart and Tikki, which is a totally vegetarian Indian cafe serving great dosas and a range of yummy South Indian snacky things. We think they are both down Surawong - by the flyover.
Oh, and Greyhound Cafe, which has branches in the big malls.
Comments
Animal outfits
I love the bunny dress - Freddie would love one of those, even though he is probably a boy. And Treacle would look fab in an Elvis costume. I hope the crase catches on over here!