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It's off to the Circus for me!!
Photos Research 2007
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More than three people have
asked me to redo the blog in the reverse order to make it easier for them
to read, well. I couldn't sleep one night and thought this a grand plan to
wile away the wee hours. I don't have many pictures here because it is so
large already, but you can click to the photo galleries from the left or
at each destination. Enjoy!
We are off!!!
While we have left the hill, we haven't left the USA yet and I can only
hope this is the worst hotel we will experience! We are likely the only
guests here that have rented for the whole night. Don't ask how we ended
up here, a wrong turn would be the best answer and I don't know why I
didn't insist on leaving.
We did enjoy some great tastes of Louisiana at La Creole in San Carlos for
dinner. We speculated that this might be our last "American" meal.
Take off and Landing
Narita, Japan photo gallery
Thanks to our good friends Jack and Jeannie, we find ourselves comfortably
ensconced in Business class for our long flight to Narita, Japan. We can't
express how thankful we are! Victor thinks we should travel more so we can
catch up on the movie scene. We each watched 4 movies that would be 4 more
than we have watched in the last 2 years.
This is Victor's first trip to a destination outside his many language
skills and he finds it difficult. Sort of like loosing your sense of
direction. Not only can we not communicate verbally, but we also can't
read the letters and pretend to break the word down to figure out the
meaning. Thank goodness for the widespread use English subtitles. We hope
this is the case in more places than just the airport!
Our first event happens when nice man takes my bag and hustles us off to a
taxi. This happened so fast and I knew right away this wasn't the way to
go as we were staying at an airport hotel. When asked the price and told
where we were headed he swiftly returned my bag and pointed us in the
direction of the hotel bus stop.
When we arrived we checked out our room and then stopped in the hotel bar
for a dinner and a glass of wine. We might have been better suited at a
non-hotel airport, perhaps in Narita, as airport lodging is like a prison.
You just can't walk out the door and find a good restaurant. We wouldn't
even know where to begin! Taking the bus back to the airport for another
bus or train didn't seem viable...but it was our first day in the Far East
and we needed to acclimate and build up our confidence with little
successes, like paying the bill right, ordering what you really want,
figuring out the exchange rates and so on.
We find that our personal time clocks are off a great deal and we awake at
a terribly early hour. Thank goodness the restaurant opens early.....
Tokyo for Lunch
Who is the researcher for this trip that stuck us at the airport?
Ahhhh...Lynn! I was a bit nervous about jumping right into lodging in
Tokyo, a place neither of us has been to and where everything would have
been an unknown and so took what I thought would be a more familiar
introduction to Asia...An airport hotel, the Holiday Inn.
This decision results in our having to take the hotel bus back to the
Airport, then catch the express train to Tokyo, an amazing $100 round
trip. Another weak research moment...what to do when we get to Tokyo? We
got off at Ginza station and walked around and around, each of us in
hurting shoes. But it was neat. Neither of us are shoppers, so this may
not have been the best section to explore, but we did have some
interesting views, enjoyed a park, found that almost no one spoke English
(at least where we were) there is no such thing as an internet cafe and we
had a fantastic lunch.
In our rambling about town we came across a little alley way that we
returned to for lunch. The restaurant had about 30 seats at 6 tables and
you were sat with other folks. We watched one group of three come in and
they were sat at 3 different tables. WOW!
This was a locals restaurant, mostly business men. I was the only woman
there. The nice thing about menus here is that almost all of them have
pictures so it doesn't matter if you can't read it...just point and cross
your fingers that you didn't just order something too wacky! We both chose
what would have been a Binto styled meal here, but it didn't come in a
box. Miso soup, rice, pork & vegetables, pot stickers, and a beer for less
than $20 very reasonable!
We found a wine shop and picked up a good bottle and headed back to
Narita. Our summary is that Tokyo was not too easy for those who don't
know the language. At least Ginza was not trying very hard to appeal to
the tourist industry with most street signs sans-English subtitles. We
wish we had done more research on Tokyo to maximize our time here. A tour
might have been the way to go.
We slept through dinner and are up at 2 am...This Narita stop was supposed
to be our time clock correction period...we hope the next day brings us
into better balance!
So on our first day we figured we had a $125 lunch. Sort of like pilots
and the $100 hamburger.
Narita Town
Today we plan on visiting Narita and then heading to the airport for Hong
Kong. We are up so early! We have another icky breakfast buffet, try to
read the paper and then get on the bus to the Airport so we can get on the
train to Narita. While the hotel has a Narita shuttle, it doesn't go into
town until 10am and it is only 7:00...so the airport and train it is!
Narita is all a-hush, still asleep when we arrive. The delivery trucks are
dropping off their wares, the street sellers are cooking their treats and
most shop doors are locked tight. There is no window shopping as all store
fronts have that metal roller-door that comes down to close off the shop.
We have a simple map and find that most roads lead to the temple. We start
the trek, a long downward loop. This route is an absolute feast for the
eyes and I take many photos, which I will post here when we get to a spot
where I can upload them from. There are the tiniest fried shrimp, eels
that are still swimming, some things I couldn't recognize, but guessed
that I probably wouldn't eat and lots of temple shops where you can buy
seemingly thousands of different red and gold trinkets. When we get to the
temple I am amazed at the amount of commerce going on in what should be a
holy place. Do we do this in the US?
The grounds are huge and we walked all of it, some parts twice. I am
finding myself voluntarily climbing stairs; this too is unusual for me!
It seems that almost everyone eats from street vendors; coffee is not a
required morning beverage for the locals such as it is for us and so we
are having difficulty finding a stopping point. All the sit-down
restaurants don't seem to open until 11 am for lunch. We are nearly back
to the train when we find a cafe to wile away the hour before lunch.
(Hopefully the jet-lag timing thing will correct soon so that our eating
times begin to match serving times!)
Our return walk up the hill has all the stores open now and the street
vendors very busy. The menus seem to highlight grilled eel. We had the
pleasure of watching the process of eel butchering from start to
finish....When we did finally stop for lunch, I ordered chicken.
Every restaurant has pictures or the actual dishes as presented with
pricing in the windows and we are now able to window shop our away to the
top of the hill and the idea was that we would share a favorite and eat
there. Instead we ate at the very British pub. They had wine.
After lunch we discovered an internet cafe and touched base with the
Hotel. All is well and we head back to the Hotel and on to the Airport
again...This time to actually fly!
Arriving in Hong Kong
Hong Kong, China photo gallery
We are so close to getting it right, but not quite. We exit the plane and
head for the express train into Hong Kong and upon arrival, are then stuck
with what to do next...there is no additional train with a stop called A12
which is next to the hotel. Alas, when we ask, it turns out that the A12
stop is a bus stop and that bus originates from the airport, not where we
are. We are advised to take a taxi.
This works out fine and we are soon enjoying our 26th floor, two room
suite overlooking the bay at the Ramada Hotel. They were having a sale for
folks in the travel industry which we qualified for. This was very
comfortable!
A Hong Kong Day
We wake up excited to see our bay view from the day time and find that we
are fogged in. For some reason, this makes me want to order room service
for breakfast. Why? I don't know, but it was the last time we ordered room
service, quite awful!
I have been to Hong Kong many years ago, and remember many spots. We start
with a walking tour that takes us by most of these Western area
highlights: Dried Seafood Market, Herbs & Medicine Markets, Antique Market
all closed because it is pre-8:00. We are still off on our time clock but
getting better.
We head for this grand escalator 800 meters long, the longest in the
world, only to find that the mornings the escalator runs one way down, and
we are at the bottom. I am not going to walk up just to take this grand
escalator down. Instead we head over to the ferry terminal and decide to
go to an island. The first terminal is going to Kowloon, just across the
harbor, this is not the one we want. The next terminal the folks ask us
where we want to go. Being rather random about our day we don't really
care and decide to go where ever this boat is going. A good choice as it
is going to the tiny island of Peng Chou, where I lived for 3 weeks when
visiting years ago!
Again, not quite understanding the transportation, we get on and take
seats in the first class section. This was supposed to be extra money,
which they did let us know about the next time that we went to 1st class.
The island was charming, lots of new building, but no motorized cars.
Carts and bikes were the ride of the day. We walked up a hill, found my
old house, back along the waterfront which has an all new walk-way being
built. We found the old bar we hung out at, but it wasn't open yet, being
just 10am.
Heading back towards the ferry we stop on a street corner restaurant to
start researching some new recipes. We had dim sum and shared a big beer.
I loved it. The shrimp in rice paper, beef balls, pork wrapped in cabbage
and a sweet bread with beef stuffing. $70 HK, $10 US.
We returned to HK on the noon ferry and decided to give that escalator
another try and planned to head up to SoHo. We got as far as the first
riser, and the escalator was stopped. We didn't know if this continued all
the way up or not, so decided that we should just get off and explore
where we were. We explored a Japanese restaurant called Coi. We had sushi,
quite lovely this eating in little bits all throughout the day! We enjoyed
California Rolls, Tempura Shrimp Rolls, Gyoso, Beef in the sticky rice
paper and two beers, $212 HK, $28 US. We saw a treat here that neither of
us has had before. Not sure what it is called, (will look for as we
travel), but it is sushi in the seaweed wrapped like an ice-cream cone.
Odd as can be.
Leading the fairly sedimentary lifestyle that we do at the Charlotte
barely prepares one for all the walking we are doing. Victor's knee is bad
and has affected his hip too and he has put on quite a limp. So we decide
to get massages. Following the directions and good pricing we find on a
brochure, we end of cutting through a dining room to the elevators and up
to the 8th floor. This is an elegant environment, not one of the frantic
storefront places. The rates do not match the brochure. They explain that
is isn't their brochure and give us a different brochure. I get a foot
massage and wonder if I will ever walk again. Victor gets a regular
beating massage, but really can walk again! I thought the price was $35 us
for the two of us, but turns out it was $60. Still a good value compared
to traditional US rates.
The escalator is fixed and we head up the hill again to SoHo. Walked a bit
of the district and stopped at the Staunton Bar & Cafe, a corner place for
some people watching. We then continued to the top of the escalator and
then took a cab to Victory Peak. This is the single most changed venue
since I was last here. New buildings actually block the views. Very odd!
It was still clouding/foggy/(polluted?) that we didn't get much of a view.
It is here on top of the world that we realize that we have misunderstood
the exchange rate. I like to figure in a way that I can do it in my head
quickly, Victor does it some other way. Some places it is easier to
multiply and drop decimals, in others, it is easier to divide....Whatever
method, as long as you are close works for me. But I was using a wrong
formula. This made everything seem really affordable. I was quite
disappointed when I did finally figure out how wrong I was. Ugggh, I can
say I was about half right. I was doing something like 100HK= 7US, when it
is really reversed-ish, $100HK=13US. Fooey!
We cab back to the hotel with plans for a nap and a dinner at one of the
Argentine restaurants we found in SoHo, instead we woke up at midnight. We
aren't really lagging, just not acclimating yet.
More Hong Kong
We are of course up very early again and on the streets by 6:30. Victor
assures me that he saw a Western styled coffee shop just up the road that
will be open. When we have reached a point of walking that I consider to
be "half-way to China" I speak up. It's dark, surely dangerous, walls of
rolled down uninviting metal doors, and looking less and less likely to
provide dining of any sort. I don't thing Asia tends to wake up early and
certainly not on a Sunday! We turn around....walk more...finally we see
food-in-the-window-signs, lights on upstairs and head that way....ends up
that it is a research center for healthy food. This is not going to
work....but from the top of the stairs we spy a restaurant on the second
floor of the building across from us in full swing.
We find the entrance and go. Ahah! I think we are the only Westerners
here, today or many days, perhaps ever. Many of the diners have a good
chuckle at our inability to communicate. We try ordering coffee. This
works, but comes cold. We then are looking at a menu of Chinese characters
(strangely, the first restaurant without a picture menu.) We are
frantically whispering back and forth about how we are going to order
without getting fried bugs and live snakes for breakfast. Our waitress
comes over and tells us we will have dim sum and she will bring things for
us. I enjoyed it, Victor prefers eggs for breakfast.
We take a cab over to the Ferry terminal and explore another island, this
one Cheng Chou. Bigger than yesterdays exploration, even some of the
market stalls are open. We walk across the isthmus to the beach on the
further side of the island and are surprised to see litter. Everywhere
else we have been has been fantastically well tended and clean. It’s warm
and humid.
When we come back we take a cab to the Causeway for shopping. This was
really high energy walking. Dynamic crowds everywhere. We got tangled in
the maze of streets and bought three sweaters. I wanted to get on one of
those narrow two story buses and just go where ever it went, so we
did...in the wrong direction for about a minute. But that was cool.
We head over to SoHo for lunch and end up at Cafe de Paris, a French place
styled after a train car. Very nice, we both chose their fixed course
lunch with an octopus salad, a steak and a delicious tart dessert. We got
some great recipe ideas here: Homemade ice-cream of the week, a chocolate
fondue dessert with lady fingers & strawberries. Raspberry port over
ice-cream, crème Brulee' or cheese cake...
After lunch we head back to the hotel for our nap, this time we did not
sleep through the evening and headed over to Kowloon and the Temple Street
Night Market. This one victor really enjoyed. He set his focus on a couple
of things and drove a hard bargain. We can now call him Mr. Roll-ex, ha
ha!
We then wandered into a whore house and had side by side foot massages by
two ladies of the night.
For dinner we returned to SoHo and chose a Spanish restaurant serving
Argentine beef. Nothing new here.
Hong Kong to Macau
Macau, China Photo gallery
This being Monday, the streets are a bit more active at 7 than they were
yesterday and we easily find the restaurant we were looking for yesterday,
just two blocks away from the hotel. Excellent coffee.
We check out and head over to the Macau Ferry terminal which is just fine
and dandy. We buy the cheap seats instead of first class, stow our luggage
and secure two nice seats looking out the window. A few minutes later we
are asked to show our tickets. We are in the wrong seats. Who knew they
were assigned? We are in the first row behind the wall that separates
first from third class in the middle of the row. No windows anywhere
around us. We read the what-to-do-in-Macau section of our handy Lonely
Planet guide book.
Exiting from the ferry we are a bit confused where to go, but finally find
the taxi line and are swiftly driven up the hill to our cute little hotel
amid a teaming island full of Vegas styled neon hotels. This is a good
choice!
Macau taxi ride to hell, and back!
Excited over our excellent little hotel on this casino island, we are
ready to explore but will start with a trip to lunch. Victor has read the
book and selected an area for dining. We head down to the front desk and
try to explain where we want to go. It isn't until quite a bit later that
we realize that speaking English is not the same as knowing the language.
The helpful desk person writes down where we think we have pointed out to
her, calls us a taxi and off we go...sure that we will be there in a few
minutes as we are quite hungry.
Our driver takes us over the bridge to the next island, Taipa. I think
this is odd, certain that Victor has selected something a bit closer to
home. We start to get that tingling feeling that all is not quite right.
The drive continues through this island and I realize we are on yet
another bridge to yet another island, Coloane. Good lord, where are we
going.
I finally kick Victor who speaks up and the driver indicates this is right
and keeps going. Still further and we have left all commerce behind. There
aren't even houses any more. Now I speak up. The driver gets out his phone
and calls someone. They speak to Victor. It turns out the driver called
the hotel. The driver continues to drive, why doesn't he pull over?
We now drive by a hotel but are still going further and further way. The
price getting higher and higher. Victor explains where we wanted to go and
gal from the hotel front desk says she thought he just wanted a
restaurant. At the end of the road is a restaurant. Where ever this place
is it is surely as far as one can go on Macau without going to China.
The driver won't stop, he is taking us to the fabled restaurant.
This is getting scary.
I have decided that I will not get out of the taxi at the end of nowhere.
We tell him to take us back. He continues to follow the road, but I
realize now it is making a loop. When we are finally back in the center of
Taipa town Victor tells him we are getting out. This seems bold, but
right.
We pay the full fare without fuss and walk around the block grateful we
haven't been kidnapped and sent away to some Chinese brothel for the rest
of our lives. We find a grocery and buy a bottle of wine. Victor decides
we should get on a bus to get back to Macau peninsula. I figure it can't
be worse than getting in a taxi. The buses tend to go where people go. So
on we get on and for a less than a dollar for the two of us we get across
this island, back to Macau and the bus drops us off exactly where Victor
wanted to go in the first place, Senado Square, about 5 minutes from the
hotel. Imagine that.
Macau, the rest of the day
We chill out with a great lunch overlooking Senado Square. I have
something called African Chicken, a Portuguese specialty. Victor has ribs.
Both are good, the atmosphere relaxing and we are able to get our feet
back on the ground. Looking around is so interesting with old European
architecture mixed with Chinese, old and new. I hope our photos show this.
Markets are full of the same stuff we saw in HK. We taxi back to the hotel
and relax before dinner.
This time Victor has chosen a Lebanese restaurant down near the water. The
desk writes the directions down and the taxi driver drops us off two
blocks away. I think is a great improvement and wonder how they don't know
where these places are. It isn't a big island. It might be that there
aren't exact addresses, but more of an area. We were able to walk around
and find the right restaurant. Either we were too late and had missed the
dinner crowd or too early, but the place was empty. We had a nice dinner
though selecting a mix of items and enjoying the many different flavors.
When finished we walked the casino district, quite different from the USA
where the slot machines are practically out the doors urging you to come
in with their constant clinking of coins, bells and whistles. In every
case we had to really look for the casino part of the hotel and in several
cases couldn't find it at all. There is very little English spoken in
Macau. They get far more Asian visitors than Europeans and Americans.
We found a slot machine, dropped in our $5.00 HK coin and played for 15
minutes, as this was worth about 75 cents USD, we thought this a fairly
good machine and wanted to play more. Alas, we only had Macau money and
the casinos only take HK money. Odd...we are in Macau....
We are a little frustrated with our Macau experience so far, but this is
Okay as Victor wakes up at 4am and reads the book again and by the time I
get up he has a full exciting day planned for us.
Breakfast in Macau
If you are following these blogs, then you will remember the Sunday in
Hong Kong were we had dim sum for breakfast, same thing here in Macau,
only 10 times funnier. When we checked in we received breakfast coupons
for one day, even though we were staying two days. When we went to the
busy dining room, there is great confusion on how to deal with us and
everyone seems to get involved with nobody taking control of the
situation. By this time Victor and I have learned to sit back and laugh at
these moments. Everyone in our immediate vicinity is laughing (at us). We
smile back.
We are given a piece of paper with 10 vertical lines of Chinese text and
told to circle which of the four we want for breakfast. Hmmmmmm. Nobody
can tell us what any of the items is. We wait. Finally a nice lady comes
on shift and is sent to us. She knows a handful of English so they have
decided she can make this work. We get mostly things we like, some we
don't but do have fun with the whole mess.
We taxi back to Senado Square which seems to be the center of everything
that isn't a casino. Victor leads us up a hill, around a lake, through a
temple and ended up after seemingly miles right in front of a restaurant
that was on our list to try. Closed this day.
Macau the $60 Tour
Victor has found a scheduled 2 hour tour of Macau from Avis, for about $40
for the two of us and we head back to the Ferry terminal. There is nobody
at the Avis desk, but we are a half hour early. Many people try to sell us
their very special tour.
We wait.
And we wait.
We wait until one more charming person tries to sell us their tour and
decide to go for it.
We get a private driver in a mini van who knows some English and the tour
is to last for 2 hours as he takes us from destination to destination for
views and photographs. We are given some instructions of what to do and
say if we get stopped by Macau police. Victor thinks this if funny and
hopes we do have a police adventure.
So off we go.... First our not-a-tour-guide driver takes us off to the
statue, which is in front of the Lebanese restaurant, which we have
already seen. Then we head to this tower that you can bungee jump off of.
We have already seen it and aren't going to bungee jump. Then we head over
to the main temple on the island. We have been here too. I now realize
that we have "done" most of Macau. We start pointing out things we would
like to see from our guide book and most of them are walked to from Senado
Square.
We are laughing at our selves again.
Our driver takes us to the other islands, Taipa and Coloane to show us the
immense Las Vegas styled casinos going in, 3,000 room hotel and a floating
casino. These are both US companies. Macau is planning on some big growth!
Again, these are both places we have seen from our taxi ride to hell.
Finally our not-a-tour-guide driver takes us to the top of a hill with a
lovely church and grounds that we had not seen and had not previously read
about. I did get some pictures, will add later.
He took us back to Senado Square so that we could walk to the other places
and I paid him the full agreed amount and a generous tip as he was very
funny. After he drove off Victor pointed out we were only with him for an
hour of our agreed 2 hours. I need to get me a roll-ex!
This experience was reminiscent of getting a foot massage by a "lady of
the night"
Macau, the more of the day
We do continue the walk of the area and find St. Paul's ruins, find where
the monk blew up the Danes, and found a great French restaurant down a
little alleyway.
We enjoyed a perfect lunch at La Bonne Heure. Best meal yet, and a good
price. We found it listed in the Lonely Planet guide, our bible so far.
We head back to the hotel for our afternoon siesta. Have you ever heard of
Fashion TV, quite a phenom. Anther channel is showing Dr. 90210, a show
about people getting plastic surgery and it follows them through their
struggle with beauty. I have never heard of it, but apparently it does
quite well, now in its fourth season. If this is what the outside world
sees as America, it’s a shame!
The lunch was so good and the company so inviting that we decided to go
back that evening for dinner. We think that Macau is small, and decide to
walk. We have checked the map, went over the details with our
maybe-speaking English doorman, who is very helpful and head out. I do get
us to the right street, but at some point it all digresses. Perhaps we go
too far, perhaps we turn to short, but we are in no mans land! For sure!
It takes us a bit of time (we are stubborn and refuse to backtrack) to
find a real street with cars and taxis. When we do, it is only about a two
minute ride to the square, seems we were practically there...but how to
know? We are such adventurers!
We enjoy another wonderful meal at La Bonne Heure and we spend a good deal
of time talking to the Chef who is Japanese. Asia is a blend of
fascinating relationships. When you find something warm, welcoming and
delicious, there is little need to continue the search, you have already
found the prize.
Victor ordered the Escargot and Lamb and I go out on a limb with
Carpaccio, which I love and duck with is just wonderful. We are thinking
the carpaccio might make a nice addition to the menu, light courses full
of flavor.
Macau to Bangkok
Bangkok, Thailand Photo gallery
We awake to rain and are umbrella-less. We decide this is okay, and again
walk into the main part of town for breakfast as we are not up to the
Chinese Menu Challenge again.
We walk and walk, and peek into windows seeking out a regular styled
coffee cup. When we find one of these, we are sure that they will have
something we can enjoy for breakfast. Thank goodness they have the picture
menu. We point, bacon and eggs, two coffees.
We continue our walk to Senado thinking we might do some shopping for
silly things to bring home, but the mist has now turned into rain and this
isn't nearly as fun at it would sounded before we started. We taxi back to
the hotel empty handed. We have a few hours to go before needing to be at
the airport.
Victor is pacing. He hates inactivity. So, we wrap up as best as one can
and head out again. This time we are going to climb to the Guia
Lighthouse, which is in our back yard, but far up the hill. I wonder if
this isn't the hill that is going to finish me off, but we reach a certain
point and the road flattens out as it circles the mountain. We are
soaking, but this is okay. Did you know if you look closely by the exit of
the hotel there may well be an umbrella rack for guests to use? Such is
the case with our hotel, but I didn't look until we came in from this
walk.
We get to the airport 3 hours ahead of our flight, which is okay, we eat.
Then we shop. Rumor has it that wine is hard to come by in Bangkok. We buy
every bottle of white wine they have in the whole airport, two bottles.
Finally we board, not a bad flight. We spend the flight time looking all
our Bangkok stops up, (the condo, dentist and cooking school.) By the time
we land, we are quite confident that we will "fly through the system like
locals."
Bangkok 1st impressions
Our 1 hour taxi ride from the airport to the condo that we rented through
vrbo.com came to a whopping $7.50. This makes us feel good. Except that
the location of the condo is a bit concerning. Once one turns off the main
street the aura declines. Narrow, dirty, lots of shacks amongst an
occasional high rise. We wonder if this is safe.
The condo is very perfect. A one bedroom with a balcony, kitchen, living
room, huge bath. Lots of space. We unwind for about a minute odd and
questionable neighborhood. No sidewalks and it isn't clear which side of
the road it the right one for folks to drive on, they use the whole road.
We stop at nearly the first place we see, perhaps a mile from the condo, a
Laos restaurant. Have you ever had hot food. This is hotter! I thought I
was going to die. I think Victor suffered more. But the food was good, the
service was very attentive.
We manage to make it home without getting hit by a car. This too is good.
Bangkok in the daylight
We are ready to try out our superb knowledge of the rail system and head
out of the condo and take the other way out of this neighborhood. As luck
would have it, we get to pass over a canal, exciting....until we get
there. The smell is powerful. The street lined with food sellers backed up
against this sewer-canal, an amazing concept. Blessedly, the walk to the
train is just a few minutes.
We immediately try to buy a multi-day pass, only to learn they have one
day, three day or one month passes. We choose the 3 day for 300 b, $9. As
we are in the process of the transaction, one of the workers who speaks
English comes to talk to us. After learning the pass does not include the
Sky Train, but only the subway, we decide this will be useless and are
going to purchase only a single trip ticket. Hmmmmm....not so. The man has
already started to give us the 3 day passes. He can't unsell them. So we
buy the one he has already coded. That makes it ever more so useless as
everything we are planning do in the next 3 days is together.
We are frustrated and leave with a bit of a pout, deciding the walk is not
too far. Guess what....It IS!
Did I mention how hot Bangkok is? UGH!
The computer that comes with the condo has some security features on it
such that I can't access aol or any of the sites where I have to log in.
This is troublesome as the time Vic is in class I am to do the
blogging...So we head over to the computer market, Pantip Plaza. We walk
for hours here. There are no deals. It seems silly to buy an Asian
computer now just for this trip. We find the internet cafe and catch up on
Emails.
Bangkok in the heat of the noon sun
Did I mention that Bangkok is hot?
So after we leave the computer market we decide to go to a wine bar in the
Sofitel for lunch. This was in a guide that Victor found. We have no idea
where it is, so we decide that a taxi is the best approach.
"Sofitel Hotel"
"Which?"
"The one with V9, Sofitel"
"Which?"
This goes on for a bit. I wonder how hard it could be to find the Sofitel
and am thinking we should head back to Hong Kong or something. Well, this
driver decides it is best for him not to take us. So we head back inside
the Pantip Plaza, computer market to find out the full address for the
Sofitel. As luck would have it there ARE several Sofitels here in Bangkok!
Silly Us. But now we are properly prepared and do find a taxi that takes
us directly to the door. A lovely hotel, but the V9 doesn't open until the
evening. We are not batting well today.
We are on Silom Street, a busy one too! Walking towards the river we pass
several restaurants and choose the one with outdoor seating. Was this
necessary at 90+ degrees and without raining humidity at seemingly 100%?
Well, yes! This is an incredible people watching town and you have to sit
near the street to watch people. Traffic is a show in itself!
We have a fantastic Japanese lunch, sushi, teriyaki salmon, miso soup,
gyoso and more! And at a great price too. We are encouraged by our
success!
We take another taxi back to the Condo, this driver speaks good English
and we exchange phone numbers. We call him several times for special
pickups. He is going to come and get us for dinner so we can go back to
the Sofitel when they are open.
Our goal this afternoon is to try to get the computer work. We fuss and
plug and unplug and restart and all the rest. When we hook back up, we now
have a Thai keyboard. This isn't good. We are sure that we have done
something irreparable and will have to buy a new computer for the condo.
This process of tweaking, plugging and trying bits takes hours, and we
fail. Can't log into any website, some security feature. Hmmmmm. Can't
print either. Just a total communication failure.
I decide to do something dramatic, try to get our laundry done. Oddly we
are able to communicate well with the support lady who speaks not a whit
of English, far more success with her than either the trains or computer.
So, we are getting our laundry done. Yippee!
Well I think we got our laundry dry cleaned. It cost triple what any other
sign we saw throughout the area, but was beautifully pressed upon return.
Even the bras, underwear and socks were nicely pressed and folded.
Victor finally figures out how to charge the camera! Another success, we
are feeling very confident now
We are such newbies!
Bangkok, Sofitel & V9
We are picked up and whisked off by our new English speaking taxi driver
to V9, the wine bar-restaurant that we tried to go to for lunch. This time
it is open, but do we have a reservation? Hmmmm....why didn't I think of
that. Oh....we did, but guess what....we can't figure out the phone system
here either...
It didn't matter, they had a lovely table for us. We are on the 37th floor
overlooking all of the tall buildings in Bangkok. Perhaps not all of them,
but a good view for sure!
The wines are well priced and Victor picks a Viognier which we enjoy. The
menu is pricey, but we are on the 37th floor! We order an appetizer that
comes with 6 different plates. It is listed as a taster but could have
been the full meal. We love this and consider something similar for HC. We
follow this up with a sea bass and a steak and each share bites. Most
excellent and a beautiful presentation all around. The following week they
have scheduled a Michelin Starred guest chef, we plan to come back.
We gather a slew of ideas for our coming wine bar. Presentation, retail
sales, bottle sales & dinner, pricing, packaging, hours, diluting the
value of our non-tasting wines, do we have non-tasting wines? Quite a bit
of thinking to do!
The Sofitel helps us with our taxi, we show the map and he describes the
location in Thai to the driver. Not very sophisticated, but it works.
Bangkok Dentist
Ugh, today we have the dentist. We decided to do this after reading in our
online research that the do a lot of international clients and our friend
Robin just did this down in Costa Rica. How risky could it be?
We have our phone in taxi pick us up and take us to the dentist. Very
interesting bit about maps, they aren't all to scale. We actually thought
we would be able to walk from our condo to the office and were
congratulating ourselves on such a convenient location selection. Alas, it
is many miles away and described by our driver as "only Thai people over
here"...
But, it is near the train station and we use this "opportunity" to give it
a go for our way home. But that comes later!
The dentist takes a look and signs us each up for thousands of dollars of
work. This is maddening, but we know it would be nearly $10k if done in
the US. Between us we need 3 root canals and 5 caps, 8 fillings, 2
cleanings, x-rays and 3 veneers. We get the x-rays and cleanings done on
this first visit and make an appointment for tomorrow (Saturday) for root
canals and fillings. Bangkok isn't looking very fun today!
We stroll down the street, full of big big big massage parlors until we
get to the Emerald Hotel where we sit for lunch. We think menu, but they
have this huge buffet going on that looks just delicious. I convince
Victor this is what we should do. Guess what...the same holds true with an
Asian in buffet, they get old. We did find some tasty treats, but decide
the discomfort one feels afterward in searching for the most delicious
morsel is not worth it. We are too full.
We are also just a block or two from the train station and decide to give
it a go. We tack on another success!
Bangkok, Dentist follow up visit
We succeed in getting to the dentist on time, using the train. Only to
find that this to is very like the US, we wait and wait before they see
us. The good news is they don't have to do as much for our teeth as the
consultation indicated. I had my 6 fillings and was released.
We train back to Sukhumvit, the main street closest to our condo and walk
around a bit locating the different places noted on our research and maps.
We discover an area that we end up returning to every day, Soi 11 and
11.1. Nice people, easy to find stuff, internet, good coffee, great
massages... We have our first Thai Massage. It is definitely a push-me,
pull-you full participation process using stretching and pressure points,
we like most of the bits.
We find this very hidden alley who's name we don't know and off of it are
a dozen restaurants and a few bars, we have tapas for lunch and this is
great, we will likely come back here again.
Good ambiance, food and pricing. We found an interesting Tapas book and
some cool magazines here. We will need to find the distributor and sign up
for subscriptions. One included a regular listing of the Sothebys wine
auctions which could be a great way to accumulate good wines at a fair
price...if there aren't other bidders for the same.
We even found a regular grocery store, Villa Market, and picked up some
bread, cheese, coffee....We ended up in bed early and awoke refreshed to
take on a new challenge!
Bangkok, Chatuchak Weekend Market
This market is enormous and very hot. We are here early. We are almost
always up early. Today is no exception! We see stall after stall, all with
seemingly the same goods. Then every once in a while, I see something that
will catch my eye, but if we aren't actually shopping, then I just keep
walking as Victor is usually ahead of me by several yards and we will lose
each other if I stop. I figure if we see it once, we will see it again. (I
hope!)
We stop for a breakfast, but I order Thai food, Victor gets eggs. I order
a lemon juice, but it comes with ice and I wonder if I should drink it. We
are staying away from drinking tap water and we don't know where the ice
came from. We both decide to go for it. Victor drinks his very quickly so
that too much of the ice won't have melted. I fret all day about this and
am sure I am going to get ill. We are vigilant about not eating at the
food carts. They often smell and look so good, but seem to lack any
sanitariness (is there such a word?)
We continue our non-shopping walk through the market looking here and
there and then down this row and where are the fish? We get hot again and
need beverages and find ourselves back at the same place we had breakfast.
We have a beer.
We are done and can't find the exit. We have to ask someone who proceeds
to give us directions that were seemingly easy as they were being
delivered, but became confusing when we followed them. We did finally get
out of the market and found the Sky Train. This is nicer than the subway
as it is above ground, providing for some views along the way.
Bangkok, Banglamphu
We are headed for the river. Again, this is an area where you get off the
train and everything you thought you knew about getting around disappears.
There are several piers, many boats, and few signs in English. We find a
tiny cafe between two piers and take a seat for a bit and refuel with a
cold beverage. This allows us to get our bearings and figure the system
out.
We take the tourist boat, while it sounds over priced and not quite what
we want, it turns out to be just right. You pay 18Baht, about $0.52 cents
and get on a boat with a tour guide telling you about each stop. You can
stay on the boat and return to the starting point or get off at any
station. There is even a special price of 100Baht for an all day on-off
pass. Our first boat trip we get off at Banglamphu, the backpackers area.
This is a whole subculture of travelers who are traveling on a serious
budget. Lots of dreadlocks and Westerners here. I also notice this is the
first place with books in English. We are missing our Lonely Planet
support guide that we had for Hong Kong and Macau.
We are enjoying this shaded area and find a guest house to sit and watch
some of the world go by. Guest houses are all-in-one places with rooms,
restaurant, bar, laundry, internet, travel services and probably even more
that I wasn't looking for. The place we were at had rooms from $5 to $15 a
night. The higher price included a private bath and an air conditioner. We
think this is a good value!
We head out again, walking any where our feet take us. Up and down odd
streets, past a Buddha, around a temple with no real goal..... We are now
looking for somewhere inside that is air conditioned for lunch. We are not
having success. We are in the middle of a huge outdoor market again. It is
hot and we are tired and hungry. We have to get out of the market, we turn
and more stuff for sale, we walk, turn, walk...turn. Getting warmer and
warmer and very dehydrated. We finally find a Chinese restaurant with
inside seating and the menu pictures don't look too bad. I order dim sum,
victor orders Italian. We cool down!
Funny thing about dim sum, you think there are hundreds of different
items, and maybe there are, but the staples are all the same, about 6 of
them on every menu with only a few different items. I like dim sum far
more than Victor and notice that I am doing more ordering of new foods
than he.
Bangkok: A lazy afternoon
We return to the condo from Banglamphu via taxi. The total is an
amazing $3 for a half hour ride. Transportation is very affordable here. I
wonder how they afford to buy the taxi at these rates, and gas to keep
them going! But there are seemingly millions of cabs in all the colors of
lifesavers, red, green, pink, yellow, blue, purple...eye candy!
We spend the afternoon researching restaurants on the internet. The first
one we pick is closed on Mondays, but this is okay, its Sunday. We nap and
head out. After what feels like a multi-mile trek from the train station,
we finally know we are in the right area and since it is sort of early for
dinner, we stop off for an hour massage. This time Victor's Massage is far
better than mine. None-the-less, I wish we could do this massage bit every
day in Groveland!
After totally relaxing we head out to where the restaurant should be.
Alas, after all we have done to get here, it is closed. But, that is okay,
we head back towards the train and choose one of the many Thai restaurants
that is on our way and enjoy a perfectly nice dinner. We have ordered in
courses and enjoy our calamari appetizer, but get confused as the main
courses are deliver. While we are sharing our food, we think that Lynn's
dish is great and keep waiting for Victor's, but what arrives next is
Lynn's. So I got to eat much more of Victor's sea bass in pepper sauce
than I should have, but this is okay as it was far better than what I
ordered, a shrimp dish!
One thing about Thailand for those who love wine it is very expensive.
Wine is considered a luxury item and is slapped with a 300% import tax.
This doesn't suit us at all!
Cooking School starts tomorrow so it is early to bed!
Bangkok Blue Elephant Cooking School
Monday is a glorious day to have a first train trip in Bangkok (this
wasn't our first, but if you go and can time it for a Monday, do!) The
Thai people have a great deal of respect for their royal family and every
Monday is King's day. It would seem that all the Thai people wear a yellow
polo shirt with the royal emblem on the left pocket. Imagine the vision of
a train crowded with folks on their way to work in a sea of yellow shirts.
This was an amazing piece of choreography that is seldom experienced in
the US. Perhaps seen only near stadiums on game days. But in Bangkok, this
is a whole city of millions all in yellow. We were awe-struck
I escort Victor to School quite certain that on his own he will be lost. I
am the minister of money and transportation, so this is not a strain for
me, but my calling. I know right where the place is having viewed it from
the train. Getting there is no problem, but the registration is surprised
to see two of us as we have only reserved for one. This is quickly
resolved and we head out for coffee as we have a half hour wait.
We review the map and I am tasked with exploring the Chit Lom area to see
if this is worthy of a visit.
We separate—for the first time this whole trip. I experience both elation
at my new freedom and some trepidation. While I am the minister of
transportation, Victor is in charge of my security...and here I am,
heading off on my own amidst this sea of yellow!
So, with chin up, I head back to the train, purchase my ticket and board.
At the transfer station I remember to get off and get on the other train
line. Good thing they have signs posted in English at each stop. It didn't
take too many stops for me to read one and realize that I was going the
wrong way. Quickly rectified by an exit, walk down all 49 steps, cross
over and back up the 49 steps. There is never an escalator when you have
erred on directions!
When I do get to Chit Lom, I find myself in the a wash in a superb
down-pour. I give it 5 minutes to clear. It doesn't. In spite of the
daunting 49 steps, I head back to the train. My internet cafe is just a
few stops away and I can spend the morning catching up on this blog.
Since Victor has another dental appointment after school, I find myself
with the full day to myself and after internetting for 4 hours, I decide
that it is time for lunch. Being the voyager that I am, I walk around a
bit and find several Indian restaurants in the area, which Victor isn't a
fan of. Narrowing the choices down was a matter of lighting and I picked
the one I could see into so as not to be kidnapped and whisked off to a
waiting ship to spend the rest of my life trying to get home. Well, isn't
that creative thinking? It just felt safer if I could see into the
restaurant. Either the seasonings were so strange to my taste buds that it
was difficult to like or it just wasn't that great. Perhaps this is why
Victor isn't a fan of Indian dining.
I head back to the condo for some R&R and a nice cooling shower. Today it
is 100% humidity and this does nothing to halt the discomfort of the
extreme heat.
Victor is back by 6 and we go out to eat at a restaurant that is both open
on Mondays and open.
Bangkok building a pattern
A few days ago we discovered the Soi 11 area, a 4 square block bit of the
city that we feel very at home with. We have a restaurant that we now go
to for breakfast and then split up for our school-blog days. We often
return to the Soi 11 later for dinner, the market or a cocktail before we
head home for the day. We even have our own Tuk-Tuk driver here that for
the huge price of $3 takes us home every night. Since this rate is about
4x the going rate, he looks for us. We appreciate this as it is worth the
price not to have to explain where we are going. The condo is centrally
located, but somewhat off the beaten path as it is a 24-story building set
in the middle of a 1/2/3 story neighborhood filled with Thai residents,
not visitors, ergo...many taxi drivers don't know this corner of Bangkok.
Today I secure a phone card and we take up the habit of calling the hotel
every day or two.
When we meet up again, we go back to the Banglamphu area, the backpackers
haven with the books published in English. We actually comparison shop and
buy the Bangkok Lonely Planet, circa 2004. I would have liked to get the
whole Thailand book, but it was too fat to carry in my bag and the other
was not. The final selling negotiation point was that I would be able to
return the book and get half of my money back. A deal I am now certain she
makes with everyone...who has time to return when you still need or want
the book with you through your final day? So, I have an older edition
Bangkok Lonely Planet book that I will let go at a very good price!
A note on a choosing the right guide book: a 2004 publication is too old
when it is 2007 and the content likely went to press in 2003! It was a
useful tool for maps but several of the suggestions were no longer in
operation and the politics of the country had changed a bit, what with a
coup in May of 2006 and the opening of the airport in September....Get a
current guide. This is a lesson I should have learned in my many years
with Karen Brown's Guides where they diligently update every year for this
exact reason.
Bangkok Saxophone
Today is Wednesday and I am halfway through my free time for the internet.
I don't want to be on the web when Victor is not in school. How boring for
him to wait for me. And I am only up to Hong Kong....I have to write
faster! Readers will notice that in my haste I am lacking in spell check.
I shall edit later!
We repeat our morning ritual of Soi 11, breakfast, a walk and then go our
separate ways. We plan to meet again late in the day as Victor has another
dentist appointment after school. I blog and dine. This time I venture
back to Silom, near the Sofitel for sushi. It isn't nearly as good as when
Victor and I had it earlier in the week.
Returning home I research again for a new restaurant and find something
called Saxophone over near Victory Monument. This is listed as nightlife,
entertainment, not food. Before dinner we head over to the British Pub
that we found yesterday and meet Scott, the owner. He confirms that
Saxophone is a great place to hear good music and suggests we eat there
(perhaps as a convenience, certainly not for the quality of the dining
experience!)
We successfully train over and find the right place, sit for dinner. It is
so dark that the waitresses hold little flashlights so you can read the
menu. I am a great browser of menus and am given my own flashlight for the
evening. We enjoyed the starters. Victor ordered a steak, which we have
learned is not a good thing to do if it is priced under $20 US. The Thai
beef comes from cows that were previously working beasts, not field fed
all their lives...a bit tough to say the least. Thai cooking of meats is
generally Medium Well to Well, which does nothing to enhance the
tenderness of a steak.
The evening was not a waste, the music was fabulous. Victor is an old hand
at the Saxophone and the band had 3 sax players and another 5 musicians.
We very much enjoyed this evening, but with school and dentist, it was not
a late night.
Bangkok Chinatown
Are we running out of things to do yet, no. Today we follow our
breakfast routine, and split up for school-internet and I meet Victor at
the waterfront. If you are ever there, the best deal in town is the little
tiny cafe stand between the two piers. For just 25Baht (75cents) you can
enjoy a beer and a great people watching spot. This is also a good meeting
spot as you will surely find your meeting person!
We head off to Chinatown which is in Old Bangkok, along the river and
halfway from the last stop. We are old hands at this tourist boat and jump
off at the right place. We are following the guide book for a walking tour
of Chinatown. We quickly realize one does not need a book to find the
highlights here. The market street is the biggest mass of people in the
smallest space all moving in opposite directions. The Chaos is screaming.
I can't believe that this place exists! Hair clips, Valentine's Day
trinkets, Buddha icons, "little kitty" stuffed animals, food vendors,
shoes, shoes, shoes and masses of people successfully maneuvering around
each other, all spending money. Then comes the delivery people who block
the whole aisle and the motorcycles who seemingly are allowed to go
everywhere. This is such a trip! I work hard not to lose sight of the
Safety Minister who always seems to be 5 feet ahead of me. I can't shop
because I can't stop! This is pure manic!
The oddest sensation of Chinatown and the market is that while it is
outdoors, the air conditioning spills out of the open air booths of the
market cooling this mass of humanity. I found this fascinating and very
wise!
Bangkok & Trivia Masters
Now regulars at the British Pub, we head over for a rousing game of
Trivia. This is a small game, held internally only as compared to the
internet game where pubs across the world vie for the title of world
domination in all things trivial.
We are a tad bit late, but they haven't started the game questions yet.
They are on the random, first-one-to-answer-right-and-loudly-wins-a-prize
questions. We aren't getting it yet, but after the fist round of this
quickly catch on.
We are given our papers and asked for a team name. We are "Bob-tha-dog."
The first round of 20 questions goes rather poorly. I think we got three
right. They take a break and we all get fresh Ale. The second round starts
with another answer quickly and loudly question, get prize. Wouldn't you
know, the question is: What is January's birthstone? Well being January
born, and less than a week to my birthday I am both quick and loud and win
the prize. This bodes well for us and provides a bit of confidence as we
prepare for the next round of questions. A real boost comes when another
couple asks to join our team. Thrilled...now we will surely step out of a
dismal last place. We do slightly better this second round, but so does
everyone else. We are still behind.
We have oodles of fun, but end up flat last.
We walk over to our regular breakfast diner for a bit of dinner. The wine,
while a more affordable than most is awful, but the dinner is enhanced by
the appearance of a small elephant being escorted down the street by his
handler and a number of police. We gawk. I of course do not have the
camera ready, which in retrospect is a good thing. We later learn when we
next see the little elephant that there is a photo fee.
Bangkok I am invited to lunch
I have been invited to lunch with the Blue Elephant cooking school class
for today, Victor's final day. This is exiting as he is so animated by his
new knowledge when he gets home. I feel lucky to enjoy this small part of
his program.
We start the with our breakfast routine and walk and split up to our
respective school-internet. I am concerned as this is my last day to log
some hours at the computer. After this we are together again and I don't
want to spend our time at the computer. I am blogging swiftly but still
only get through our Macau adventures.
I meet the class at the time Victor has said they are going to be done,
but today there are some slower students and we must wait for everyone to
finish one recipe, then we get a class on the last recipe and then prepare
it. It was fascinating being there for the course program. Very well done.
After everyone finished the recipe we were sat in the main dining room to
enjoy all the courses for the day. Each student is served what they cooked
for the morning. The only caveat being that Thai people enjoy their foods
all together mixing the flavors of sweet and tangy with mellow and spicy
and this often means every dish is no longer hot. This is not deemed a
matter of any importance to the Thai people, but I sort of prefer hot soup
and main courses.
Over lunch we enjoy talking to Victor's class mates and learning what
brought them to the school and Thailand. I hand out Hotel Charlotte flyers
to everyone. We have handed out so many flyers that I hope I don't run out
before we have to go home! Everyone we meet is interested in the Hotel and
Yosemite and takes a brochure. This is excellent!
A word about this fine restaurant. The people at the Blue Elephant could
not have been more kind and accommodating and it wasn't just business, it
was a way of life. We met many of the team and enjoyed their hospitality
to no end. On our way out, Nooror one of the founding owners asked if the
two of us would like a private class on Monday or Tuesday. We were
planning to run away to Chiang Mai for my Birthday on Wednesday, so we
sign up for the class for Monday.
And off we run to the dentist.
Bangkok Dental hell
Victor has decided that since he needs so much dental work, it is only
fair that I too get something more done. He suggests a whitening
treatment. I am feeling some guilt that I got off so easily on the dental
end of the trip that I agree. He has made an appointment for me today.
Ugh! I never should have signed up for this teeth whitening. First they
have me sign a release that says I might not enjoy success and every
patient has a different out come. Then we pull a color sample and the
process begins.
It is painful.
I figure I can stand the pain if
I know how much longer it is going to last. I can't talk and swallowing
causes the laser to burn my lip. I point at my wrist and mime a
watch...How much longer? Nobody understands the question. I am asked
several times if I am okay. I am determined to make it through the hour
and nod yes. But I have to keep swallowing and my lip is now in pain along
with my teeth. I begin to quiver and can't make it stop. The next time I
am asked if I am okay, I can't lie anymore, I am surely not okay, get this
stuff out of my mouth. Tears have started rolling and I can't make them
stop. They can't get it out fast enough. She makes me stay in the chair
until I calm down. I pretend to, and am released. But as soon as I see
Victor again the watershed flows.
I can't believe how painful this
is. He says my teeth look great. Then comes the closer from the billing
lady. I am given an instruction sheet....no coffee, tea or cigarettes for
a week. Well, that just isn't going to work. They should have given me
these rules before the procedure, perhaps with the release they found time
for me to sign. I would have waited until I was off coffee and had quit
smoking before putting myself through this. Well, I hope I am one of the
lucky ones that can smoke an occasional cigarette and enjoy a cup of
coffee without restaining my teeth.
We head back to the condo and I
crash for a few hours.
Bangkok Cheap Charlies
Another treasure in our adopted neighborhood, Soi 11. Off on a side
street and outside, no more than 8 feet deep, and that includes the depth
of the bar and the customer seating area, is Cheap Charlies and that it
is. Written up in every guide book and online information resource for
Bangkok for good reason. It is an eclectic meeting place for after work
with odd signs, good prices and great cheer. We go here to recover from
our dental debacle.
We have walked past this icon many times in the morning. To close up
Charlie pulls a tarp down from the top of the bar and clips it to the
bottom. This is closed. Open, he rolls up the tarp to expose natural teak
and signage that is sure to impress visitors from around the world.
Keep inside the line on the floor when cars are passing.
Thank you for only pee. Don't shit
Here we meet a photographer from Timeout: Bangkok. We will have to follow
this publication to see if we make the magazine or the cutting floor. We
of course talk with her about Groveland and Yosemite. She has been here!
We share our brochure and she thinks...yes, she has seen the Charlotte.
What a small world. I am feeling better about my teeth.
Bangkok a day of curiosity and waiting
This day we decide to do something completely non-touristy and go to watch
a pre-sale for a condo that hasn't broken ground yet. We found this listed
first in the newspaper and it drew our curiosity. For the low price of
$150, one can begin the process of owning a condo in central Bangkok. When
we later found the advertisement boards near the dentist office for the
event, we figured it was just something we would have to go see. The
pre-sale is just a few blocks from where they drill our teeth, what are
the odds of that? It seems like destiny!
While the event is scheduled from 10-4, we are in no real rush as we are
only just intrigued and go to Soi 11 for breakfast and a morning foot
massage.
When we get to the pre-sale we are given a number, handed a stack of
papers written mostly in Thai to review and told that they will call us
when it is our turn to talk to someone. We have #539. They are on #37.
This doesn't look good. We wait about an hour and they are now on #48. We
wait another hour and they are on #77. We go to lunch and linger. On the
walk back I find myself searching the ground for discarded numbers, maybe
someone got discouraged and we can move up the list.
When we return the counting computer is off and the projected images show
that almost all of the units are marked as reserved. Victor asks what
number they are on and the man asks Victor what his number is. Victor
tells him and he picks up the microphone and calls number #539, imagine
that! We consider this an interesting system, and go to find our English
speaking helper to tell us about the next step in the system.
We have fun, but it is a long afternoon!
Bangkok Spa Services
Today we follow our routine with a stop first at the pharmacy to pick up
something for stomach ailments and travelers diarrhea. I am not feeling
too well. The pharmacy is incredible, they have everything and it seems
everything is available upon request except for narcotic drugs that can
only be obtained through the hospital.
They have a Pepto Bismal like product for what ails me and it is even the
familiar pink. I am fairly confident that foreign medications are
okay...and well...I need it if I am to continue our research!
They said they take credit cards so we go to pay for the pink pills and
low-and-behold, while they do take credit cards, they can't take them
until after 10 am. Apparently the only person who knows how to do this
doesn't start until then. We decide to come back after breakfast.
We have lunch in the area and are invited to enjoy a two hour massage,
with a 15% discount because we ate at the restaurant. The price is about
double what we have been paying to our friends a block away ($15 an hour
vs $8), but this is a real upscale spa event and with nothing really on
our list of things we have to do today, we succumb. What a pleasure this
is! I am thinking we should host a Thai massage therapist to stay with us
in Groveland so that we can enjoy and share this pleasure regularly!
We book our "get out of Bangkok, its Lynn's birthday trip" after a number
of internet failures, by calling the airline directly. We are set to go on
Tuesday to Chiang Mai in the northern region. Victor sees no reason to
pre-book lodging, I consider this un-American, but go along.
Bangkok private cooking class
The Blue Elephant has invited us to a private class to pick up some handy
tips aimed at the restaurant chef rather than the hobby cook. We are given
over to one of their top chefs who gives us a lesson in making our own
chili paste and chili oil. I am the class photographer and chief asker of
dumb questions. I am very competent at one of these.
We are treated to chili paste sandwiches, sort of like peanut butter but
with a real zing! The color is gorgeous. The next thing we do is cook a
fish dish. This is wonderful, but not something everyone will like. Using
a small sea bass we fry the head, tail and a dozen bite sized pieces.
While this is cooking we mix up a yummy chili & pineapple sauce. Putting
everything together on the plate we rebuild the fish, ladle the sauce and
add deep fried bay leaves to the top. Delicious, but the darn thing is
staring at me.
This was really fun to have a private lesson and we are ready to head out
when we get invited to tour their processing plant. All of the prep work
for the 9 luxury restaurants is done in Thailand and shipped overnight.
This includes the cleaning and packaging the vegetables, making batches of
the sauces, oils and pastes. The farms in Thailand provide fresh and
lovely vegetables year round, the labor is available and affordable and
this process provides consistency from restaurant to restaurant to have
the basics all provided from the same location.
This is a very sterile operation and we are required to don long lab
coats, hair nets and rubber boots. The operation is spotless and very
impressive!
The Blue Elephant has 9 locations of their Royal Thai Cuisine restaurants,
several fast Thai service restaurants and provides prepackaged meals for
sale in grocery stores. They have a good business plan and are now looking
to expand into the USA. Perhaps we can help them with distribution
introductions. We could be a first customer for them in the USA.
We have the best of tour guides today from the Chef that showed us the
recipes to the our host for the 45 minute ride to the factory & back to
the factory director who interrupted his busy day to show us around. A
unique and wonderful experience.
Sirroco, on top of the world Bangkok
Leaving the Blue Elephant we have been advised to check out Sirroco for
views and ambiance. As we have nothing left on our itinerary for the day,
we walk over. The building is impressive with huge pillars on the bottom
going up many floors, pure white with a gold dome on top. We elevate to
the 64th floor and find we are the only folks there, but it is the middle
of the afternoon.
We order two glasses of their lowest priced wine, which is a crazy $15 per
glass. We are certainly paying for these views over looking the river.
It's a smoggy city and difficult to see far or crisply, and the pictures
don't come out too well but the memories are vivid.
When we are ready to go we find a Tuk-Tuk driver and show him our map to
the Condo. We agree on a price and off we put-put. Now fairly familiar
with the city, the Transportation Minister considers his route choice
quite odd, but we have prenegotiated a price, so I am not as concerned as
we really do have all day.
Turns out he doesn't understand our map and is driving us to his English
speaking friend to help him figure out the way. We find this charming and
all have a well interpreted good laugh.
Enotecha (Wine Library)
We like the name of this Italian restaurant to go about trying to find it
at the end of Soi 27, which is hardly more than a back alley way. I am
with the Safety Minister and have no concerns.
The restaurant is lovely, but not warm and welcoming. This is different
from most of our Thai dining experiences and strikes me as odd. We order
one of their lowest priced wines but when the wine steward comes to open
the bottle he tells us we have made an excellent choice.
The bells start ringing!
We immediately know this is not going to be the bottle we ordered. It
takes us several minutes to convince him that we did not in fact order an
excellent wine and that there must be a mistake. We have to get a menu and
show him which we ordered and he sulked off to get the proper bottle. He
sent someone else to open the not so excellent bottle for us. To give you
an idea, the bottle of cheap wine we ordered was just over $36 USD. The
bottle he wanted to open for us was almost $90 USD and no doubt excellent,
but not within our price range.
Victor ordered an interesting Lasagna, cooked fresh instead of baked and
warmed as is the usual lasagna service. He thought it delicious.
We finished our evening with a walk back to Soi 11 to wish our friends at
the British Pub a nice week as we were off for the next couple of days to
Chiang Mai.
Chiang Mai: no money and a Karaoke party
Chiang Mai, Thailand photos
Funny, when we made the phone reservations I swear the lady said it was a
2:20 departure. So we head out to start our day right at our breakfast
joint, grab a quick foot massage and stop in the internet cafe to catch up
on emails. Good thing she sent me an email confirmation showing the right
departure time. 2:20 is our arrival time, departure is 12:50.
Well, now we have to hustle! I don't know why we didn't jump in our
standby Tuk-Tuk which would have gotten us back in minutes. Instead we
walk the one-third mile (or so) to the train, wait for the next train and
walk the one-third mile (or so) to the condo in about half an hour.
But it only takes us minutes to pack a bag and head out again to flag a
taxi. We are a bit concerned that we might not find one quickly that will
agree to go to the airport. We are sort of in the middle of town, but not
in a high traffic area. But this turns out to not be a problem and the
Doorman quickly hails us an airport bound ride.
Arriving in Chiang Mai we find ourselves in that strange position of
finding out what to do next. Always stop at the bar or cafe for a coffee,
there can be no rush...Check the scene out! A hastily made decision at
this point is going to cost you money. We look around a bit for a bus
stand into town, none is evident. We see lots of tour operators and a
hotel reservation desk. For some reason, we don't want the services of
these professionals. We finally eye the taxi stand and head in that
direction.
Where you go?
To the old city
What hotel?
Just to the old city
Where?
(Hmmm, now we are stuck!)
Oh, anywhere is okay, we just want to walk around
(We must sound like idiots)
Taxi that way.
She points around the corner.
There are no metered taxi's just the cars that folks use. Generally a rip
off. But we have already lost most of our confidence and need to get out
of the airport and decide to go for it. We have a repeat of the same
conversation with the English speaking fellow who says okay, we can get a
ride for 120 Baht, (about $3.50 USD) This is only double what I had read
that the price should be and we nod and get in. I am not the minister of
negotiation, but Victor points out that this transaction clearly falls
under the Ministries of transportation and finance and that I am indeed
the negotiator. We laugh.
We find Chiang Mai to have more English speaking folks as a percentage of
those you come across in your day to day events than anywhere else we have
been this whole trip. We are blessed with an English speaking driver. We
talk about the festival that is going on, actually tomorrow is the last
day of the festival. He notes that the town is full so folks who had
procrastinated from all over Thailand are visiting for the show. Hmmmmm.
We ask about lodging and what he might recommend. Oh, nothing madam, town
is full. Ugh! Why didn't we make reservations? Actually, I tried to but
everything I contacted WAS full! Oh dear!
So our friendly driver takes us to Old Town which is across the moat. You
can still see many remnants of the old wall. He kindly drops us off at the
one of the entrances that has every other building as a guest house. If we
don't need anything special, he thinks we might find accommodation here.
Eye Candy! The street is more of a one lane alley way that twists and
turns for the first 2 blocks then straightens out. Building are very
close, no green space. Every other building is a guest houses and they all
include a travel agency, restaurant, bar, laundry service, internet cafe
and motorcycle rentals. We are a little bit dizzied by the visions and
walk bit into the old city.
I think we should find lodging first. So as is usually the case with us,
we inquire, look at the room and take it no matter what the conditions.
This time it was okay, queen bedded room, private bath and a tiny little
balcony for all of $9 USD, breakfast not included. We drop our bag (really
just a purse with not much more than underwear and toothbrushes) and head
out to look for a late lunch and to exchange some of our USD to Baht.
My experience with Old Towns, like San Diego, is that they are also small
towns. Not the case here! We follow along some even more narrow alleys and
finally find a main street. But this old town is really only about guest
houses and the services they provide, stand alone restaurants, internet
cafes, massage parlors an occasional motorcycle repair shop....Not much on
banking!
We walk until I am more than a little concerned. We don't have many Baht
left and have seen nowhere that takes credit cards and are scheduled to be
here for two days. I am imagining thirst and hunger! We ask a fellow how
far to an exchange place and are told it is just up the road, maybe a
kilometer....Hmmmmm not really! It is quite a bit up the road, maybe a
mile and a half. You actually have to leave the moated sanctuary and cross
two BUSY streets and then continue walking forever until you find the
first bank...which does not exchange money, but maybe someone else does up
the road....Okay, now I am starting to feel the pains of starvation in
advance of the reality.
We continue down the road and slip into a small bank that has an exchange
sign and the nice fellow locks the door right after us, it is 3:30 pm. We
are instructed to take a number and are #517. They are on #212. I can see
why they close early. There are only a few people waiting, not the
hundreds that the numbering system would indicate. They call all of the
waiting numbers except ours. The tellers are closing up and we keep
sitting. This is silly! Will they serve us dinner if we keep waiting? My
stomach hopes so!
We are finally called. Apparently only one of the tellers can do exchanges
and she was otherwise engaged. I am always so grateful when a perfectly
acceptable answer to my having to wait has not been preceded by me fussing
at someone about the system not meeting my expectations.
We get the money and run!
Having successfully recrossed the busy streets and moat we take a
different street towards home and in the second block find a pub called
the Queen Vic and with a credit card emblem on their window. This bodes
well and we stop in. Cute Cute Cute! We have what started out in the plans
as being lunch, but ended up as a very early supper. We meet the owner and
enjoy his story. We share a brochure with him and tell him all about
Yosemite and the Hotel Charlotte in Groveland.
We leave and it is still very daylight. We start walking back to our guest
house and realize that we have no clue how to get there. Hmmmmm. Good
thing the Transportation Minister took a business card with map on it from
the hotel's front desk before we left. I don't think either of us knew the
name of the place or the street we were on. We quickly negotiated a high
price from a Tuk-Tuk driver and were soon back on our street. I started
thinking it might have been funny to only be two blocks from the hotel and
not know it...
Being too early to bed down, we walk over to one of the massage parlors
and get a nice traditional Thai Massage. I will tell you about these in
another post....Glorious! We wonder to the gals if we are close enough to
walk to the night market. It being just across the BUSY street and moat
they think we should walk. Off we go on our now revived feet to walk
another mile or so...The market was lovely, the people friendly and out
going and we quickly found several exchange places. Turns out the exit we
used in the afternoon isn't a tourist street and provided no real touristy
services like money exchanges; and only minutes from our hotel there are
half a dozen exchanges.
We finish our evening with a stop at the bar next to our hotel and have a
beer and before bed as we are exhausted by today’s (mis-) adventures. Our
plans quickly changed when we hear John Lennon and the Beatles belting out
their greatest hits and decide to find out what all the good music is
about.
Just a block away is a tiny little restaurant seating no more that 12
people and they are having a Karaoke party. To expand the operation they
have put a few tables on the other side of the street. Half off the
pavement, half on. This takes up only a portion of the tiny alleyway and
the smallest of cars can still get through.
We are invited to join John Lennon's table (he is really named Colin) and
enjoy several hours of merry making, karaoke, a free buffet and good
conversation. This is the most fun night of our whole trip. Victor "sings"
three songs and we dance in the street.
Every half hour or so another person loaded with wares brings their
merchandise to the table and gives us "the pitch." I love this kind of
shopping. Our new found friends help with the negotiations and we
thoroughly enjoy watching the art of the deal handled by professionals on
both sides of the negotiation. I feel good that we got a fair deal on the
few items we buy.
We go to bed with our day completely redeemed!
Chiang Mai, A self-guided motorcycle tour
We have a fair breakfast next door followed up with a good cup of coffee
down the street. I wish myself a happy birthday.
Having learned our lesson with Tokyo, if you only have a few days and want
to see much, then use a tour to maximize your time. We stop in at the
nearest travel agency which is of course in our Hotel Lobby. We look at
the pictures and read the descriptions and finally narrow it down to the
one that requires the least trekking through the untamed jungles. In one
day we will visit a butterfly farm, elephant camp, mountain villages, ride
a water buffalo pulled cart (circa sometime before Christ) ride the river
on a bamboo raft and hike up to a waterfall, all transportation and lunch
included for the grand price of $35. Okay, all very touristy, but on this
trip to Chiang Mai, we are tourists!
We have managed to drag the morning out and head across the street to rent
a motorcycle for the day. Can you believe it is only $6 USD for 24 hours.
I wonder if insurance is included. We get a quick review, Victor takes off
around the block and I get on. I think I might have been on a motorcycle
once before and Victor used to have one, but doesn't say if he ever drove
it. We circle a few blocks of the old city and venture out to the BUSY
street. We are not immediately hit by any vehicles and this builds our
confidence and we cross over to the other BUSIER street. We only have to
go a block to get to the gas station, but also have to cross the four
lanes of traffic. For some unfathomable reason, I am perfectly calm. I
later learn that Victor was not.
From our earlier walk and map review, I have the vaguest idea where we are
and where we are going and direct Victor on when to turn where to get over
to the river so we can head south along the scenic shore. However,
sometimes I give a turn direction just to save our lives from some threat
ahead and eventually found myself confused as to which direction we were
actually heading. Feigning confidence because I know I need it and assume
Victor does too, I continue giving my best guess on directions and only
have to occasionally remind him that he is on the wrong side of the
street. (Like England, they drive on the opposite side from what we are
used to.)
I am pleased with myself at finding the river and we cross over and head
south. Victor seems to think he is on a bicycle and clings to the narrow
edge of the gutter. Yes, where all the manholes and bumps are. I try to
encourage him to take the lane. It is actually worse to be on the side and
have the traffic passing us than to just take the lane and go with the
flow. My bottom is bruising.
Those who drive this way every day have a certain expectation as to what
the other drivers will do, which is generally to speed up and not grant
right of way. They know that and sneak into the lanes until they just go.
Victor is ceding right of way and driving both cautiously and politely and
the other drivers don't respond as he expects... which is for them to go.
They don't go because they don't anticipate his slowing down. In
retrospect this is very funny, but did feel dangerous while we were on the
street.
We hardly see much of the river and seem to quickly lose it. Eventually we
are going past rice fields. This is very pleasant as there is no traffic
at all. We talk about stopping for a beverage as motorcycling is very
parching. I tell him that he can stop whenever he wants and that I am
ready. We go on and on and on. I remind him that we were thinking of
stopping and he soon stops at a gas station. This is a very American
response, all of our gas stations have a little convenience store. Here,
this isn't so. They have a refrigerator though and we take a cola and
water. Now, being out of town we are not in Englishville and when I ask
the price the gentleman holds up 6 fingers and then 10 fingers. I
interpret this to mean 60 Baht, about $1.75. Very unreasonable. But I pull
out my three 20 Baht bills and hand them to him. He takes one and brings
me back four. I guess he meant 6 for the water and 10 for the cola, 16
Baht, about 45 cents total and very reasonable.
Getting off the bike is awful, because we have to get back on and our
bottoms feel quite broken! We head out again and about a quarter mile down
the road see a sign in English for Coffee Garden. We stop to either get a
cup of coffee or see a coffee plantation. We aren't sure which we are
going to, but it turns out we have a wonderful cup of coffee and are back
in Englishville. The owner sits with us and our maps and shows us where we
are. We are not in a bad spot, actually almost in the direction I had
thought, only about 10 miles further than anticipated.
We lounge a bit and then head off again. The town we are in is called Baan
Tawai and is a huge export center with oodles of neat looking furniture,
pottery, carved animals and any number of unique items ready to ship.
There are no restaurants that we can see and it is very lunch time.
We hit the diagonal road that will take us back past the Airport and right
into the old town. Traffic is picking up, but by now we are old pros at
this and just sail right in....and spend a difficult hour driving around
old town looking for our hotel. We can't find the little alley entrance
and are quickly so twisted about that we no longer know which side of town
we are on, though we are clearly on the same streets several times. We
almost stop to ask directions.
Since we have contracted the scooter for 24 hours, we don't really want to
give it up yet. So we park and head to lunch followed by a great birthday
massage. Returning to the scooter we decide to head up the mountain a bit
out of town and see if we can't find some of the waterfalls. When we get
to the BUSY street, it is rush hour and ugly. Victor takes us home again.
I think this is a Grand Idea as my backside is complaining loudly with
every little bump. I think we did something like 50 miles. We return the
bike.
We decide to take a little walk and repeat our steps of yesterday when we
were looking for a money exchange. We also want to find our alley way
entrances from the main streets so we can confidently find our way home
again, though we may never need this knowledge again.
We walk up to the Queen Vic, which is far further than we remember. We
have a beer and check our email as they have a computer for guests such as
we do at the Hotel Charlotte. While Victor is signing on to the computer,
my eyes wander over to the newspaper counter where the owner has a
brochure display and I couldn't believe what I was seeing...A Hotel
Charlotte brochure. I am amazed and pleased and fire up the camera. I have
Victor take my picture here with the brochure and quickly add quite a few
more! I always travel with a handful in my bag, you never know where you
will find your next guest!
We decide to eat at Tamarind and sit almost in the swimming pool. They
have live music and a wonderful romantic setting. Once they lit the
citronella candles and gave us an organic mosquito spray it was perfect. I
ordered a duck curry with lychee which was one of the best meals I've had
so far.
We walked back to the hotel and did not miss the entrance to our alley
way. We finish our evening with another stop at the Karaoke place, which
is very pleasant and we enjoy additional a beer and verbal camaraderie
with Colin who has been here for9 months. He has picked up a great deal of
Thai customs and shares some great stories and observations with us. We
are fairly well hooked on Chiang Mai!
What a grand birthday!
Chiang Mai: Bamboo-Elephant tour
We are up in time for the tour and do not need the scheduled wake-up
knock. Today, the one day we probably need the nutrition and energy
provided by a real breakfast, we have only coffee and a pastry.
Wouldn't you know it, the first hour of our tour is spent going from hotel
to hotel picking up other tourists. We are harmonizing with our tour
group, welcoming each new pick up and planning to spend a lovely day
getting to know each other a little better. We are intrigued with meeting
Francisco from Cancun, Mexico who is in Chiang Mai for a Tao retreat where
he will have a three week spiritual experience silently ensconced in a
closet. I am fascinated.
We welcome Gary from England who's doing the tour alone as his travel
friend has previously enjoyed it. We finish our pickups with a final stop
at the office where we meet many buses who have picked up other tour goers
and we have a little Chinese fire drill as everyone gets off their bus and
onto another bus. I wonder how many years it took to develop these
logistics.
We now have a new travel group that includes us and Gary from England and
we all seem too frustrated to go through the meeting process again and
have a quiet ride out of town. Our first stop is to pick up three more
travelers, all ladies from Australia. As the guide spends a minute telling
us about the tour, it would appear that we have two different programs
going on here. She keeps talking about the one day trek. I am absolutely
positive that we have not signed up for a trek, which to me mean walk
through the jungle. I am certain that in the jumble of folks getting on
and off the bus we were supposed to go somewhere else and begin dreading a
day of trekking. I have improper shoes!
Our first stop is a butterfly and orchid farm. The butterflies are not
colorful or impressive, but the orchids are. Victor takes some really nice
pictures and I am tempted to buy something souvenirish, but the prices
aren't good. We share a coffee with Gary before the bus heads up the
mountain.
When the bus gets to the little village, Victor and I along with Gary and
the ladies from Australia are instructed to get off and with our tour
guide we will go see the Elephants. I guess the other people on the bus
are the ones trekking. I am thrilled.
The plan is to first see the elephants, not ride them. We will then go to
a zoo and then walk over to where the riding elephants are. I am confused
but we go along with the program figuring they have this ironed out and
all will be fine.
All but one of the big elephants is out with riders and we meander over to
where the babies are. Cameras come out and cooing begins. We feed them
food they can reach on their own and feel good about ourselves. I reach
out to one of the elephants that seems in distress and he swiftly swats me
with his trunk. I am grateful not to have been any closer! A fellow rides
over on an elephant who poses for pictures. This time I am not swatted and
sit on an extended elephant knee.
Across the way is a patch with what looks to be frames of some sort drying
in the sun. Elephant dung paper. Cool!
We wander the grounds, find the shops, look about, find bathrooms, use
them, find beverages, have one and it is all very free form. I guess our
guide had a handle on where we all were because when it was time to walk
to the zoo, we were all together. Up the hill we head and the next stop is
a little market place where the ladies are all in traditional village
attire, very colorful. We find the prices here to be half of what they
were down by the elephant camp and pick some nice things up to bring back
home. Then we walk and walk and walk. Ugh. Up hill.
When we get where we are going, we see a bunch of the people who were on
our bus earlier in the day. Cool. We sit for lunch, which is made edible
by the addition of the sauces provided. Our group, now melded as one, is
split up again as Victor and I are taken off to ride an elephant.
We have to climb a one story platform to board the beast. Once in, it
seems okay...until the elephant moves. Victor and I are sitting in a
little metal seat with a safety bar across the front. Victor is to my
left. As the elephant takes a step first Victor takes a dip downward, then
I do as Victor comes back up. Oh, My! This for an hour? I want to change
places with the guide who is sitting behind the elephants head and not
experiencing any of this dipping.
We head up a hill on a very narrow path and as transportation minister, I
am of course on the cliff side of the hill high up on this huge animal who
in picking his way on a foot wide path with no safety rail to keep us on
the hill should the elephant have a miss-step. I am trying hard not to let
this panic me. Victor is enjoying my fear and keeps telling me to take a
picture of this and that and all I can do is hang on. As soon I gain
confidence that we won't tumble off the hill, we reach the top. The views
are beautiful with terraced fields of vegetables, homes in the
distance....But also at the top is where we start going down. This is far
worse than going up and I feel I just might tumble out of the little chair
and land right on top of the guide. I am floundering. Then I think my
movements are sure to unsettle the elephant and I will cause our fall. I
sit very still through the rest of the ride and actually enjoy the second
half on fairly flat ground.
When we alight from the lumbering beast and reconnect with our tour guide
and head off through the terraced fields to our waiting van. I fall off
the terrace twice, but don't step on any poisonous snakes. Having
abandoned all others, our group is now just three, Victor and myself and
we have Francisco from Cancun Mexico back with us.
Next we get a water buffalo ride through the town and surrounding fields
in what really looks like a cart that would have been around 2,000 years
ago. The pegs holding it all together are wooden dowels. The water buffalo
also look like they are from 2,000 years ago as does the town itself, with
the exception of the half dozen Satellite dishes and occasional cell
phone.
Done with our land adventures, we board a bamboo float, another relic from
an earlier time. This is very peaceful and uneventful. We are enjoying the
company of Francisco for the last hour, Victor far more that I because the
are speaking Spanish most of the time, and I only catch a few bits. We are
passed by another raft. I don' t think this is fair and offer or guides a
big tip if we retake the lead. They don't really understand and we come in
second. Victor tells me it is not a race and that we got more time on the
river than those who passed us, a better value for our money. I am tired
and want to go home.
We have all agreed that we do not need to take a walk through the jungle
to a waterfall that has no water falling and head off to the vans for
home. I hope that we have few stops this time, or are first off the bus.
We get back in time for dinner and a massage before we need to head to the
airport for our return to Bangkok. We eat just down the street at Pum Pui,
a fantastic Italian restaurant. The pizza was perfect, the salad
wonderful. We both enjoyed our $4.5o Thai massage (Chiang Mai is even
cheaper than Bangkok!)
Khao San Road, Banglamphu—Not!
Since we leave in two days, we have to get some of the touristy things
done in Bangkok. We head down to the water and catch the tourist taxi boat
to stop 8 where one can tour Wat Pho, the reclining gold Buddha and across
the street see the Grand Palace.
The weather is far cooler than when we left and we are comfortably not
sweating today.
We get off the boat and I follow Victor as he walks forever down the
street. I don't know why...but I do. Finally a Tuk-Tuk driver asks us if
we want a ride to the temple, which is now far behind us.
I knew that.
Victor thought we were just going to walk around the complex. Hmmm, what
fun is that, we should see the golden sleeping statue. We turn around and
walk back to the complex entrance and we are peeking in the window and can
see the mass of gold lying down. Wow! When we get to the gate, they want
50 Baht. We walk on figuring we have seen it through the window, and the
fussy camera is sitting on the recharger at the condo.
We walk towards the Grand Palace that while located on the next block, it
is a huge block. All this tourist activity makes us hungry and we decide
to skip the palace and go find a restaurant instead. Wouldn't you know it,
we end up back in Banglamphu. I should have brought the guide book to sell
back to the lady!
We think we are on Khao San Road, one of those world famous streets like
Sunset Strip. In fact we are only a block away. We have a wonderful lunch
sitting at a sidewalk cafe watching the very entertaining street life. We
even have sellers come to our table with their trinkets and we do a little
more shopping for the folks back home. This too is one of our best days.
Very type B!
We are planning how to make our escape from Bangkok. Our flight leaves at
6:30 Sunday morning. Will we find a cab from the condo? We have to leave
at 3:30 AM to get to the airport on time. Victor suggests we go to the
airport after dinner and just hang out over night. I think we should move
to a guest house in Banglamphu. This place is open all night for a taxi.
We head back and I take a nap before we head off to dinner. We have chosen
to visit V9 again, by far the best dining experience we have had this
whole trip. We again love it! They have this wonderful small plate platter
that is out of this world. We order the Spanish ensemble this time and
enjoy every bite, even the mussels!
Bangkok, last minute shopping
Oh, we have put off so much and have a busy day scheduled. I send Victor
one way to get his stuff done and go to the internet cafe and pound out a
few more of the blogs. We meet again and have lunch at Tapas, another of
our favorites on Soi 11.
The rest of the afternoon we spend actually shopping the very same markets
we have now walked by dozens of times getting from the train to our Soi 11
stomping grounds. We have a well planned list of things to get for certain
folks having talked it over several times, but can't find most of the
items.
We take so much time getting through all the choices that I have to go to
the bathroom. We try to use MacDonalds, but they don't have a bathroom
inside the restaurant and we are sent to the grocery store. Too odd...I
pass. We can have a beer somewhere instead. We pick the next spot called
Country Bar and sit outside. This is actually a girly bar, but it is
afternoon so we are mostly alone. We really aren't there but 2 minutes
when a man comes up to us to sell his wares. He has a pocket full of
watches and a pitch that could sell ice to Eskimos. We are all laughing as
he pulls out watch after watch. Victor decides he can use a watch for one
of the people on our list that we can't find the King's Shirt we had
planned on. They negotiate and come to agreement. We buy the watch but the
man has to fix Victors other watch that he broke the band on the day he
bought it in Hong Kong. This works out well. I give him a 1000 Baht bill
and instead of giving me my 200 Baht change he gives me a ladies watch. I
think this is a great price and take it, only to realize later that it is
a plastic band and I am allergic to the metal of the watch. What sillies
we are, but we are having fun!
We have successfully avoided two things in Bangkok, one being the street
food vendors for reasons mentioned earlier, the other the motorcycle
taxis. For just over a few pennies one can get a ride on a motorcycle. Not
recommended for long distances. Instead of walking the block further to
the train, we abandon all common sense and hop on two motorcycles waiting
right at the bar to take weary workers home from the train station. We
have not yet seen any Westerners attempt this mode of transportation. We
love it and should have done this all the time. The cost is a non-issue
and it takes but moments to get anywhere. The motorcycles are always at
the front of every stop light weaving through the cars to get to the
front. There are no traffic jams when you are on a motorcycle.
I wonder if they have insurance.
Bangkok final moments
While on his chores this morning Victor's taxi driver spoke English and
they discussed many important issues, including picking us up for the
airport at 3:30 in the morning. The plan now set and being Transportation
Minister, it is my job to stay awake after dinner so we don't miss the
plane. I nap so that I can stay awake later.
Our last dinner and we again go to a favorite, Zanzifar on Soi 11. This is
where Victor had the best steak ever and we enjoyed some hokey one man
band live music and a bit too much wine. This time I ordered some Sushi
appetizers for us and ended up getting the sushi ice-cream cone things.
Not expecting this we found it difficult to share them but did try. I just
wanted regular California rolls. So this is what I ordered for my dinner
and it was perfect!
We get home and I watch some of the strangest late night TV ever produced.
Dr. 90210? Ever hear of it?
I successfully don't fall asleep. We do catch our taxi. And we are
selected by the United Airlines staff to both get on the plane as standby
customers and to sit in Business Class for both of our flights. We are
thrilled.
I unsuccessfully don't fall asleep the whole trip home which included a
4.5 hour flight Bangkok to Narita, a 4 hour layover and an 8.5 hour flight
Narita to San Francisco. It is again morning when we land and I think I
have now been up for two full days. With the time difference it is really
only a day and a half. We were going to stop at the Asian Grocery and pick
up our Thai fixings for this coming week and then drive home to Groveland,
but I couldn't keep my eyes open. We get a hotel room and I crash for the
afternoon and missed the Superbowl. It's good to be back home.
Recipe Research Summary
We found dozens of new recipe and service ideas to look at in the coming
months. Some of them might get added, and some not.
That’s it for now! I feel like I have written a book! Maybe someday when I
retire from innkeeping I will become a travel writer or just a fiction
writer. Victor says I embellish. I think I just have more dramatic
experiences than he does.
We had a grand time and will
return to Asia again.
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Hotel Charlotte
