20th - 26th June 2011
Well, well, well, what a treat you are in for if you happen to be reading this. BIG news! This week, we did bugger all worth mentioning but because I've paid for a (relatively) expensive coffee caramel frappe I'm going to put finger tip to keyboard and tell you alllll about it.
As usual on Monday, Djalma went to work mid-morning, I woke up feeling rather shocking so stayed in bed most of the day and did nothing, no power walks in the park, no yoga, no writing and definitely no housework. Djalma brought lunch home, we played some cards, watched a Dispatches show about climate change (very provocative – according to the show climate change is normal and the carbon we produce is a tiny weeny little bit of what the earth produces naturally) Djalma fell asleep watching it, (he seems to be taking to afternoon naps like a little baby) I woke him up and we went for a walk in our little park. Strolling around the greenery in the coolish evening, we talked about Bangkok, our future plans with regards to working, training, travelling, family and most importantly fitness. We decided to get up extra early in the mornings so we could do yoga together and feel prepared and energised for the day, as I write (it is now Tuesday the 28th of June) we have not managed to do this once, not even in an afternoon. Finding our beef noodle soup lady all shut up we walked across to another food-stall offering chicken noodle soup and filled up our bowls with bean sprouts, hot basil, peanuts, fish sauce and a touch of chilli. Back in our little flat we put on The Tourist and watched a very predictable spy/love story with a too think Angelina Jolie and a Johnny Depp who I can only think of now as Captain Jack Sparrow.
As you know our plan to get up early and practise yoga together has, thus far, failed abysmally, but we planned to get up at 6am on Tuesday, needless to say... It never happened, I had an awful nights sleep and ended up sleeping in until fairly late, meanwhile Djalma dragged himself out of bed and went to teach his two classes that day. When I did manage to drag myself out of bed, I went for a power walk, did my yoga, cleaned the flat and went out for breakfast in the afternoon. Back at the flat I wrote up week five which I struggled to get out, I would rate on the same difficulty level as forcefully ejecting a turd which has no desire to see the light of day, painful and time-consuming.
In the evening we watched Matt Damon and the anorexic girl from 'The Devil Wears Prada' in The Adjustment Room, wonderful film, much better than The Tourist.
Wednesday began very late for me and Djalma, the beginning of his mid-week weekend, we stayed in bed until 11.30, I went out for a long power walk round the park and did some yoga while Djalma lazed in bed, playing solitaire on the computer and wasting time on FB. Djalma, inspired by my dedication to fitness (hahaha, NOT!) then dragged himself out to the bigger park to do his own set of exercises, which by the way, are building up his muscles handsomely and giving him cracking knots in his back at the same time. He brought back some awful chicken gloop and rice for lunch and then... we played some more cards.
I feel that our epic card games deserve a separate mention, prying me away from my love for (the Lambert/Mathie version of) Gin Rummy he has taught me three new games, the names of which I don't know in English, only in Portuguese; Tranca (my favourite), Buraco (second favourite – if you get a full run from Ace to Ace you get 1000 points) and a type of Solitaire for two or more players (the name eludes me just now). We play up to 3000 points which allows for a good 3-5 games depending on how well I play/how my luck goes/how many beers are impairing my judgement. Djalma usually wipes the floor with me, which because I'm such a poor loser puts me in a bad mood and makes me feel a little bit depressed, but that afternoons game deserves special mention; the score was 3230-820 to yours truly! I tried not to, but I couldn't stop laughing (at him and at my good fortune). Unfortunately for me, Djalma took the next available to kick my ass at cards again and I was back in my place – losing.
We had a couple of beers, clearing out our fridge supply and after dinner on the street, we saw The Green Lantern at our slightly more local cinema in the Century Shopping Centre at the end of Rang Nam Road. Getting our freezing butts out of the cinema we decided to walk a good half an hour to the couch-surfing meeting which is held every Wednesday not to far from us. We got another beer and then joined other travellers/locals in a small bar tucked away in a small Soi (side street). It was a nice evening, and it was good to meet new people, one of things we had talked about on Monday night was the need to make some new friends, I'm not greedy, I only want one (I'd love more) if I could choose I would make this one friend a blend of all my girlfriends back home and then we could talk about boys, sex, clothes, make-up, good hair-masks, the joys of hair removal, a mutual jealousy of gorgeous feminine Thai women and so on, the things that don't really crop up in conversation with Djalma. Oh, and with this (imaginary) friend, I would discover a cheap local wine bar where they also serve delicious cheese and fresh bakes bread, and we would have all our girl chats there. The people where nice, very nice actually I think we're going back this week, there are two girls in particular who stuck out in my memory; one was a Filipino and lovely, she even had special shortbread form the Philippines, the other was English and wore the too-big contact lenses that give me the creeps and who asked me, having just met me, if I was a douche-bag. How... wonderful. I wasn't quite sure what to say to that, what can you say when some one asks if you're horrid or not? 'Um, I hope not', 'Of course I am, you mean you aren't... could have fooled me' or, as Djalma suggested when I relayed this story back to him on our way home 'yes I am and this is a douche-bag only table, if you're not one then piss off'. Unfortunately for me and fortunately for this girl, I'm not exactly quick off the mark when it comes to witty retorts.
On Thursday we slept in again, I wasn't feeling too great, the beers last night had failed to loosen me up one bit, instead they just gave me a headache. I went downstairs to our pork noodles man and got us some breakfast some Khao Klook Kra Phrae Kai, I think that's right – I made a concerted effort to memorise this particular dish because it's the best one he does, its steamed chicken stir fried with a little chilli, garlic and some Chinese sauce with green veg and it's delicious. We kicked back and watched Space Balls, something I'd been wanting to watch for a while and the reason why we downloaded all the Star Wars films. Honestly, I don't now why we bothered, Star Wars was good but Space Balls was shockingly awful, it completely bypassed the category of 'so bad it's actually a bit good' and went straight to 'a load of old shite'. With a belly full of period pain and lots of aspirin in me, I was still complaining so Djalma went downstairs to our local 7-Eleven and got several bars of chocolate and some crisps, I managed to eat three chocolate bars while he kicked my ass at cards again 4320-1430.
Well these are the only days I've made notes for, Djalma worked again on Friday, I did some yoga and walking. Saturday we had off and we spent the day at home not doing much, Djalma took a new class for the following day, we watched a film or two, played cards, and went out for dinner at one of the street-side restaurants to have this amazing dish; plain rice with little bits of chicken stir fried with a little bit of spicy sauce and green veg, accompanied with a fried egg, gorgeous.
Sunday Djalma started teaching the new class, six hours in one day, he spent most of Saturday preparing for it and worrying about not having enough material and students falling asleep after lunch. It turned out he didn't have to worry, the students were all good and he actually ran out of time. I felt a bit weird spending a Sunday without him. Tie spent on the internet actually bore fruit when I found this plan for running 'Couch to 5K Running Plan' for anyone who's interested, here's the link: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
I did the first “run” which was actually just twenty minutes made up of 60 seconds jogging followed by 90 seconds walking. It wasn't too bad although my legs were a bit floppy by the end of it, back up our six flights of stairs (which are getting my legs in good shape!) I practised some yoga and then trawled the internet looking for inspiration and ideas about running and yoga. Djalma came back from class early evening, happy with how things went, I felt so relieved for him, I couldn't imagine planning for a six hour lesson and we kicked back and watched some Transformers. As well as cards I think that Transformers also deserves a special mention, is it wrong that I love it? Optimus Prime is such a dude and his voice is so cool, I loved how the robots were all gangster my favourite line in the film goes is from the 'weapons expert' who is waiting outside Sam's house while he looks for his Grandfathers Specs (the key to saving the world of course), the robot overhears Sam's parents (legendary parenting skills, I love it!) and turns to Optimus Prime and says “The parents are very irritating. Can I take them out? ” Well it doesn't look so funny here, I think you have to watch it, anyway – I can't wait to see Transformers 3 at the cinema, does that make a BIG kid? I don't care!
Well that's a weeks worth of fun in Thailand, I 'll try to do better next week and perhaps take a few photos so you have something pretty to look at, thanks for staying with me if you got this far!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Bangkok, Thailand: Week Six
13th - 19th June 2011
Djalma's two days at work at the beginning of the week passed by quickly, on Monday I started the week with fresh intentions to clean up my act a bit and try to get in shape for upcoming beach visits, so I went for a power walk in my local park, did a yoga session following a video from Mandy Ingber (an annoying woman with a tiny bottom, she got Jennifer Aniston in shape). After a much needed shower I got stuck into the housework. Fortunately for me I hadn't been using nearly as much talcum powder and so things weren't quite as dusty, a real blessing because I haven't been able to find any furniture polish and as for a duster – I've been using one of Djalma's thermal sleeves he cut off, not exactly a professional set-up. The cleaning fluid I got for the bathroom isn't strong enough to cut through a weeks build up of grime, which is actually a fair amount considering we each have a minimum of two showers per day. Tuesday followed in the same suit minus the housework and because Djalma taught two lessons I had the flat to myself all day.
Wednesday, well Wednesday I had plans for. I've been dying to go to this butterfly and insect place for ages, and we made tentative arrangements to go mid week, but Djalma was feeling super lazy and I decided to put it off till later so we could go together. Cue a day of major card playing and a fair amount of boredom. Until the evening that is, we walked into town stopping off at a street-side restaurant and had some delicious dinner, before carrying on into town and up to the cinema complex in CentralWorld. We checked the times before leaving the house and so we arrived just in time to see our film of the week, X-Men – First Class. Wow, how charming is the young Xavier!? Loved it, even though I have overdosed on X-Men and Wolverine films in the past, the younger characters and all the previous relationships made it fresher. We wandered back in the balmy evening air, stepping on the wonky paving slabs that squish up filthy rain water after a good downpour.
And now the moment that I'd been waiting for... Thursday and a trip to South East Asia's largest Aquarium. This large underground attraction, hugely expensive, in at the bottom of a swanky shopping centre, Siam Paragon. We still had money off vouchers from when we had planned to visit previously and instead of getting a much cheaper normal ticket we upgraded to get a little package deal, very exciting stuff.
The place was huge and beautifully lit although very dark, I took hundreds of pictures and deleted most of them, what follows are the ones that I deemed okay enough to keep... After passing through the weird and wonderful section...
we came into the lizard, frog and salamander section, one of the frogs looked dead so I didn't take a photo (how tasteless would that have been!?) but after reading the sign I realised that actually it was supposed to look like a dead leaf.
After Djalma stopped to pet a snake, he was a bit put out that he wasn't allowed to hold it, we waited for the water rat and otter feeding times. The water rats just ate the food out of the guys hands but the otters did tricks, fetched balls, jumped through hoops and pulled out banners, very impressive.
We carried on through the Aquarium, actually I though everything was so amazing I wanted to go back and re-take pictures, we ended up re-visiting the penguins and several fish tanks, but they were all so pretty it didn't really matter.
*On a side note, I'm sitting in a small pub in a Soi off Ratchaprarop and I've just realised that the ladyboy served me a Coke Zero, it's disgusting!
We sat outside a fish tank for larger fish and waited for them to be fed, it's amazing how slovenly fish are until it comes to feeding time.
There were a couple of really huge fish and several ugly ones, we took great pleasure in taking pictures of each other, documenting everything because it was a treat day. After yet more pictures outside tanks (there was a really cool one with silver fish and little sharks that was supposed to be like a Mangrove Forest) we went for a little dip in the Happy Fish Happy Feet Pools.
In the enclosed area our feet were rinsed off and we sat on comfy leather seats in front of a huge plexiglass section showing all the sharks and eagle rays. I managed to dip my toes in a couple of times (very near the surface) but my feet bolted out of the water of their own accord as soon as one little muncher attached itself to the sole of my right foot and started gnawing on me. Ugh, just thinking about it is making me shudder, Djalma was egging me on trying to get me to enjoy the experience as he sat with his huge hairy feet covered with lots of wriggling fishy bodies gorging themselves on his dead skin, he even commented on one fish really going for it on his big toe. I will not being going in for that experience again.
We were almost at the end of the show but we doubled back on ourselves to go and watch the penguins being fed, what fat little lazy adorable underwater torpedoes! The same guy who had fed the rats and the otters came through a little door at the back, with his bucket of fish and the little chubby birds gathered round his feet with their beaks open waiting to catch a fish. It was rather comical, actually it reminds of a quote I pinched from my little sister QI Book of Quotes... 'It is practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry. Joe Moore' If the guy missed and a fish fell out of a penguins mouth, it would let the fish go and wait patiently for another, what a lazy little blubber ball, I loved it.
The guy through some fish into the water, the front part of the enclosure was one wall of plexiglass and you could see the water and the rocks behind at the same time, the slightly more energetic penguins which went after the airborne fish plopped into the water like agile fat torpedoes, sorry I can't help calling them little fat torpedoes, they were just so cute.
Leaving the cute little blobs behind we went through the shark tunnel for the first time, there were plenty of sharks and eagle rays, it was amazing to watch them swim overhead with rows of teeth magnified by the glass. There was even a swanky Band and Olufsen room playing classical music, the lights changed behind the jellyfish tanks and it was very soothing.
We continued on to a room which looked in on one side of the shark tunnel and watched with plenty of others and an extraordinarily cute little girl, as two divers descended to the bottom and ALL the fish came out of hiding and circled the rubber clad duo.
It was the first feeding time of the day, I'm not so sure I would have jumped into a small enclosure with one hungry fish let alone all the sharks. After watching the sharks get fed from a short sticks and then prodded on their way we retraced our footsteps and queued up for the glass bottomed boat tour which was in exactly the same place as the back of house tour.
It took about five minutes and we shared a boat with a cute old Asian couple and watched the tuna and the eagle rays swim past, not put off at all by the blinding reflection of our dayglo orange safety vests. Immediately out of the boat we joined a back of house tour, I didn't catch much of what the girl said, it is embarrassingly difficult for me to understand the Thai accent, I am so ashamed especially when someone can speak my language and all I know of theirs is hello and thank you. Anyway we walked round the back looking at big tanks that cleaned the water, different water filters and some shark eggs.
By now we had spent over two hours in the Aquarium and I was feeling the need for some fresh air, we had already had some popcorn and fizzy pop while watching the rats and the otters and then again when watching the penguins but my stomach was calling so after one last photo opportunity we headed out into the fresh air, giving the food-court a miss and got some pad Thai from a street vendor under the BTS link.
We then headed on the walkway overhead to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre to see a Foreign and Familiar exhibition which we had seen advertised. The centre was super cool, outside there was a big bin and some big ugly animal heads and indoors a huge open space surrounded by paintings and works of art.
We sat down outside one of the small cafés selling coffee and art and then walked past local portrait artists, one of whom was sleeping, up the escalators to the exhibition. Stupidly I didn't take any photos, it was such a pleasure to see some different styles of photography with such different takes on the same topic. Djalma and I were very grown-up, we walked round separately enjoying the art and then walked around them together afterwards talking about different pieces, did we like, why were they good/bad/interesting etc. It was a lovely was to spend and afternoon and completely free!
We made our way back towards home stopping off at the Peace Park near our apartment, we have two parks near us one is less than two minutes from our door and is smaller and quieter, but I think more beautiful and the other is larger and in a slightly busier area with a bigger play area for kids. I sat on a park bench taking pictures of kids playing while Djalma went on worked on his ever growing biceps.
It was early evening so we stopped for dinner at street restaurant opposite the park and ordered some dinner, I pointed to what a girl near me was eating and Djalma had chicken, veg and rice, mine won hands down. I still can't get over how well you can eat here for 1USD, it's nuts and I love it. Heading home feeling exhausted we put a film before falling asleep like babies.
Djalma went out to work on Friday late morning, I went for a walk and did some yoga, we just sat back and chilled out on Friday night, Djalma was dying to have a night out on the town but I really wasn't feeling it so we had a few beers and stayed in playing cards.
Saturday rolled around and we decided to pay the Youth Centre a visit, I woke up feeling very grumpy and when we got there my mood wasn't helped by the fact that most of the machines were broken and the one working cross trainer was being used by a woman who looked like she wasn't about to come off it any time soon. Cow. I went down to see Djalma who was sweating it out with the big boys, they might be short but they made up for the lack of height in extreme width. Djalma stayed for another half an hour while I went home and did about ten minutes of yoga, I fell on my mat exhausted and grumpy and refused to do any more.
When he got home we cracked open a couple of beers and played cards getting in the right frame of mind for hitting the town. Having had my ass handed to me on a plate, as always, we had dinner, more beer, a shower and then left for Kao San Road – where all the backpackers go and where we stayed the first night in Bangkok. We sat down at one of the bars offering strong cocktails and promised not to check our ID and ordered the first, of what I expect will be many, Thai Buckets. For the uninitiated, a Thai Bucket contains a small bucket-full of whatever cocktail you order, a Samsung was cheapest – Thai Whiskey, Red Bull and Coke. I had to pace myself in order not to eject it over the pavement but the melting ice made it drinkable, maybe you need to drink more for it to taste better, I will test this theory on our next night out. We called Mateus, from Djalma's home town and from the bucket bar we went to another place with live music and a disco where we danced for a couple of hours before heading home. It was good and I can remember most of it but the best part of the night was calling Susanna at 2.30 in the morning and having a good old chin-wag, heaven.
Needless to say Sunday was a do nothing day. After dragging ourselves out of bed at 10am we went back to the 7-Eleven where we had got a hot dog from last night and got ourselves another for breakfast. Back to bed for a film (I cannot remember what we watched, I do know that over the course of the week we watched; MammaMia, Teeth, Tooth Fairy and something else) and then out again for lunch, a nice dirty BigMac Meal in our local McDonalds, I do, by the way, realise how much of a nasty tourist I sound like, but the fact of the matter is that I miss Western food and I have NEVER eaten so much fast food in my life (believe that if you will) but there is something about McDonalds out here that just really grabs, well KFC does as well but I can't find a Zinger Tower Burger for love nor money. Well that about wraps up our sixth week in this beautiful city. Stay tuned for next week's offering: Bangkok, Thailand: Week Seven. Exciting stuff I can hardly wait!
Djalma's two days at work at the beginning of the week passed by quickly, on Monday I started the week with fresh intentions to clean up my act a bit and try to get in shape for upcoming beach visits, so I went for a power walk in my local park, did a yoga session following a video from Mandy Ingber (an annoying woman with a tiny bottom, she got Jennifer Aniston in shape). After a much needed shower I got stuck into the housework. Fortunately for me I hadn't been using nearly as much talcum powder and so things weren't quite as dusty, a real blessing because I haven't been able to find any furniture polish and as for a duster – I've been using one of Djalma's thermal sleeves he cut off, not exactly a professional set-up. The cleaning fluid I got for the bathroom isn't strong enough to cut through a weeks build up of grime, which is actually a fair amount considering we each have a minimum of two showers per day. Tuesday followed in the same suit minus the housework and because Djalma taught two lessons I had the flat to myself all day.
Wednesday, well Wednesday I had plans for. I've been dying to go to this butterfly and insect place for ages, and we made tentative arrangements to go mid week, but Djalma was feeling super lazy and I decided to put it off till later so we could go together. Cue a day of major card playing and a fair amount of boredom. Until the evening that is, we walked into town stopping off at a street-side restaurant and had some delicious dinner, before carrying on into town and up to the cinema complex in CentralWorld. We checked the times before leaving the house and so we arrived just in time to see our film of the week, X-Men – First Class. Wow, how charming is the young Xavier!? Loved it, even though I have overdosed on X-Men and Wolverine films in the past, the younger characters and all the previous relationships made it fresher. We wandered back in the balmy evening air, stepping on the wonky paving slabs that squish up filthy rain water after a good downpour.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
And now the moment that I'd been waiting for... Thursday and a trip to South East Asia's largest Aquarium. This large underground attraction, hugely expensive, in at the bottom of a swanky shopping centre, Siam Paragon. We still had money off vouchers from when we had planned to visit previously and instead of getting a much cheaper normal ticket we upgraded to get a little package deal, very exciting stuff.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
The place was huge and beautifully lit although very dark, I took hundreds of pictures and deleted most of them, what follows are the ones that I deemed okay enough to keep... After passing through the weird and wonderful section...
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
we came into the lizard, frog and salamander section, one of the frogs looked dead so I didn't take a photo (how tasteless would that have been!?) but after reading the sign I realised that actually it was supposed to look like a dead leaf.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
After Djalma stopped to pet a snake, he was a bit put out that he wasn't allowed to hold it, we waited for the water rat and otter feeding times. The water rats just ate the food out of the guys hands but the otters did tricks, fetched balls, jumped through hoops and pulled out banners, very impressive.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
We carried on through the Aquarium, actually I though everything was so amazing I wanted to go back and re-take pictures, we ended up re-visiting the penguins and several fish tanks, but they were all so pretty it didn't really matter.
*On a side note, I'm sitting in a small pub in a Soi off Ratchaprarop and I've just realised that the ladyboy served me a Coke Zero, it's disgusting!
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
We sat outside a fish tank for larger fish and waited for them to be fed, it's amazing how slovenly fish are until it comes to feeding time.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
There were a couple of really huge fish and several ugly ones, we took great pleasure in taking pictures of each other, documenting everything because it was a treat day. After yet more pictures outside tanks (there was a really cool one with silver fish and little sharks that was supposed to be like a Mangrove Forest) we went for a little dip in the Happy Fish Happy Feet Pools.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
In the enclosed area our feet were rinsed off and we sat on comfy leather seats in front of a huge plexiglass section showing all the sharks and eagle rays. I managed to dip my toes in a couple of times (very near the surface) but my feet bolted out of the water of their own accord as soon as one little muncher attached itself to the sole of my right foot and started gnawing on me. Ugh, just thinking about it is making me shudder, Djalma was egging me on trying to get me to enjoy the experience as he sat with his huge hairy feet covered with lots of wriggling fishy bodies gorging themselves on his dead skin, he even commented on one fish really going for it on his big toe. I will not being going in for that experience again.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
We were almost at the end of the show but we doubled back on ourselves to go and watch the penguins being fed, what fat little lazy adorable underwater torpedoes! The same guy who had fed the rats and the otters came through a little door at the back, with his bucket of fish and the little chubby birds gathered round his feet with their beaks open waiting to catch a fish. It was rather comical, actually it reminds of a quote I pinched from my little sister QI Book of Quotes... 'It is practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry. Joe Moore' If the guy missed and a fish fell out of a penguins mouth, it would let the fish go and wait patiently for another, what a lazy little blubber ball, I loved it.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
The guy through some fish into the water, the front part of the enclosure was one wall of plexiglass and you could see the water and the rocks behind at the same time, the slightly more energetic penguins which went after the airborne fish plopped into the water like agile fat torpedoes, sorry I can't help calling them little fat torpedoes, they were just so cute.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
Leaving the cute little blobs behind we went through the shark tunnel for the first time, there were plenty of sharks and eagle rays, it was amazing to watch them swim overhead with rows of teeth magnified by the glass. There was even a swanky Band and Olufsen room playing classical music, the lights changed behind the jellyfish tanks and it was very soothing.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
We continued on to a room which looked in on one side of the shark tunnel and watched with plenty of others and an extraordinarily cute little girl, as two divers descended to the bottom and ALL the fish came out of hiding and circled the rubber clad duo.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
It was the first feeding time of the day, I'm not so sure I would have jumped into a small enclosure with one hungry fish let alone all the sharks. After watching the sharks get fed from a short sticks and then prodded on their way we retraced our footsteps and queued up for the glass bottomed boat tour which was in exactly the same place as the back of house tour.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
It took about five minutes and we shared a boat with a cute old Asian couple and watched the tuna and the eagle rays swim past, not put off at all by the blinding reflection of our dayglo orange safety vests. Immediately out of the boat we joined a back of house tour, I didn't catch much of what the girl said, it is embarrassingly difficult for me to understand the Thai accent, I am so ashamed especially when someone can speak my language and all I know of theirs is hello and thank you. Anyway we walked round the back looking at big tanks that cleaned the water, different water filters and some shark eggs.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
By now we had spent over two hours in the Aquarium and I was feeling the need for some fresh air, we had already had some popcorn and fizzy pop while watching the rats and the otters and then again when watching the penguins but my stomach was calling so after one last photo opportunity we headed out into the fresh air, giving the food-court a miss and got some pad Thai from a street vendor under the BTS link.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
We then headed on the walkway overhead to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre to see a Foreign and Familiar exhibition which we had seen advertised. The centre was super cool, outside there was a big bin and some big ugly animal heads and indoors a huge open space surrounded by paintings and works of art.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
We sat down outside one of the small cafés selling coffee and art and then walked past local portrait artists, one of whom was sleeping, up the escalators to the exhibition. Stupidly I didn't take any photos, it was such a pleasure to see some different styles of photography with such different takes on the same topic. Djalma and I were very grown-up, we walked round separately enjoying the art and then walked around them together afterwards talking about different pieces, did we like, why were they good/bad/interesting etc. It was a lovely was to spend and afternoon and completely free!
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
We made our way back towards home stopping off at the Peace Park near our apartment, we have two parks near us one is less than two minutes from our door and is smaller and quieter, but I think more beautiful and the other is larger and in a slightly busier area with a bigger play area for kids. I sat on a park bench taking pictures of kids playing while Djalma went on worked on his ever growing biceps.
 |
| From 6 Week Six, Bangkok, Thailand |
It was early evening so we stopped for dinner at street restaurant opposite the park and ordered some dinner, I pointed to what a girl near me was eating and Djalma had chicken, veg and rice, mine won hands down. I still can't get over how well you can eat here for 1USD, it's nuts and I love it. Heading home feeling exhausted we put a film before falling asleep like babies.
Djalma went out to work on Friday late morning, I went for a walk and did some yoga, we just sat back and chilled out on Friday night, Djalma was dying to have a night out on the town but I really wasn't feeling it so we had a few beers and stayed in playing cards.
Saturday rolled around and we decided to pay the Youth Centre a visit, I woke up feeling very grumpy and when we got there my mood wasn't helped by the fact that most of the machines were broken and the one working cross trainer was being used by a woman who looked like she wasn't about to come off it any time soon. Cow. I went down to see Djalma who was sweating it out with the big boys, they might be short but they made up for the lack of height in extreme width. Djalma stayed for another half an hour while I went home and did about ten minutes of yoga, I fell on my mat exhausted and grumpy and refused to do any more.
When he got home we cracked open a couple of beers and played cards getting in the right frame of mind for hitting the town. Having had my ass handed to me on a plate, as always, we had dinner, more beer, a shower and then left for Kao San Road – where all the backpackers go and where we stayed the first night in Bangkok. We sat down at one of the bars offering strong cocktails and promised not to check our ID and ordered the first, of what I expect will be many, Thai Buckets. For the uninitiated, a Thai Bucket contains a small bucket-full of whatever cocktail you order, a Samsung was cheapest – Thai Whiskey, Red Bull and Coke. I had to pace myself in order not to eject it over the pavement but the melting ice made it drinkable, maybe you need to drink more for it to taste better, I will test this theory on our next night out. We called Mateus, from Djalma's home town and from the bucket bar we went to another place with live music and a disco where we danced for a couple of hours before heading home. It was good and I can remember most of it but the best part of the night was calling Susanna at 2.30 in the morning and having a good old chin-wag, heaven.
Needless to say Sunday was a do nothing day. After dragging ourselves out of bed at 10am we went back to the 7-Eleven where we had got a hot dog from last night and got ourselves another for breakfast. Back to bed for a film (I cannot remember what we watched, I do know that over the course of the week we watched; MammaMia, Teeth, Tooth Fairy and something else) and then out again for lunch, a nice dirty BigMac Meal in our local McDonalds, I do, by the way, realise how much of a nasty tourist I sound like, but the fact of the matter is that I miss Western food and I have NEVER eaten so much fast food in my life (believe that if you will) but there is something about McDonalds out here that just really grabs, well KFC does as well but I can't find a Zinger Tower Burger for love nor money. Well that about wraps up our sixth week in this beautiful city. Stay tuned for next week's offering: Bangkok, Thailand: Week Seven. Exciting stuff I can hardly wait!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Bangkok, Thailand: Week Five
6th - 12th June 2011
Nothing like a 6am start on a Monday morning, we walked back to our station got my overnight ticket to the border and then returned home, me to sleep and Djalma to get ready for work. When I did finally get up around mid-morning Djalma was already at school getting ready for his first class, no preparation needed, just placements tests and a fair bit of negative shite from his co-workers, who by the way are actually really nice, just apparently not that into motivating their students. He brought some duck and rice home for lunch and then I sorted through the rest of my stuff for the visa run.
We left around 6ish for my 8.30pm train, getting the BTS and the Metro to the main station, Hua Lampong where we sat and had a quick dinner of pork ball noodles, the place was crawling with roaches but none of them seemed to be doing backstrokes in our broth, thankfully. Quarter of an hour before my train was due to leave I got into my air-conditioned carriage and kissed my husband goodbye, then settled into my berth listening to my Ipod.
We were late arriving at Nong Khai, the last stop on the Thai border before crossing the friendship bridge over the latte coloured water of the Mekong River, but the connecting train waited for us and after we were stamped out of Thailand a big group of backpackers, myself included, sat on the train and waited to be ferried across the water and into Laos.
The train ride only took 15 minutes when it did eventually get moving and we arrived in Thanaleng (pronounced Tanaleng) the first stop on the Laos border only 20odd kilometres away from the capital, Vientiane, but unfortunately without any rail connection there. Buying my $35 visa and jumping on one of the shared open backed taxis, I headed further into French Laos. Fortunately for me an English/Thai couple were also headed towards the embassy and I got off there as well, submitting my application form and payment before walking into town.
After changing a few of my USD I followed directions and the map and found myself right where I wanted to be, unfortunately my hotel of choice (cheapest and best!) was full so I took a room in the one next door and after a MUCH needed shower I headed for breakfast.
Sitting down in the Scandinavian Bakery recommended by the LP guidebook I indulged in a baguette almost as long as my arm with ham, cheese and salad, things I'd almost forgotten the taste of. After planning the rest of my day I headed out in the direction of Wat Si Saket hoping to find a bank and an internet café along the way, no such luck – I made it to the tourist attraction before I even saw a bank. Fortunately for me, even after paying for my hotel room and breakfast, I had just enough to cover the entrance fee a whopping 5000kip, which works out at about 60c or 40p and that was the tourist rate.
Ignoring my thirst – it was hot and sunny, I spent over an hour walking round the grounds and the partially open rooms facing inward to the main square and the room with the big Buddha. Wat Si Saket (a Wat as I think you know by now is a Monastery Temple) is open to paying visitors, there wasn't a monk in sight, it was built in 1818 by King Anouvong and is the oldest temple in Vientiane.
It's special because in the small niches spaced in regular intervals on the walls in the 3 walled rooms, the are over 2000 small silver and ceramic Buddha images and if that wasn't enough, underneath these wall mounted deities there are over 300 seated and standing Buddhas of varying size, age and material.
It was a beautiful place to walk round and most of the Buddhas had robes as well, some where pretty funky others quite tame but all of them were orange or gold. In the grounds outside there were some beautiful shrines to those passed away, most were white with plenty of gold painted detail and a couple were mirrored, covered in lots of cut mirror reflecting the sky and the trees.
Wandering through the grass I managed to collect hundreds of annoying grass seeds in my voluminous trousers legs, they scratched and pricked at my legs the whole afternoon. My parched throat calling, I got directions from the ticket man and then some armed guards, to the nearest bank. JOY, can you guess... air-conditioning! I took my sunned body into the bank and changed 50USD and managed a good three glasses of their filtered water – just like in Bangkok a smile will get you everywhere, they were so friendly. Feeling refreshed and more than a little bit guilty that I hadn't made contact with Djalma, I walked until I found an internet café and managed to get him on line and assure him that I wasn't in Timbuktu or Cambodia somewhere (honestly with me on my own, you never can tell) and that I had already been to the embassy and had some fresh bread. Wifely duties done I decided to walk around the small French flavoured city a bit more. It felt quite liberating being myself in a new place and I quite enjoyed it, I decided to try and check out the museum, something Djalma wouldn't have liked anyway, but it was closed and looked crusty AND there was a no photography sign, so I crossed that one off my list.
Walking down the sun-baked streets I passed by many a Wat and decided to go in and have a look around, just stepping into the small gardens away from the road takes you into a different world. Monks in bright orange and I mean day-glo-what-on-earth-do-you-wash-your-robes-in orange wandered round in smalls groups chatting looking for all the world like uni students in the same uniform. The sky looked ominous but there were still huge patched where the light came pouring through so after sitting in the main room with the big guy and sending a prayer for my family back home I made my way to the river front.
I walked along the river front praying the sky wouldn't empty itself over my unprotected camera and enjoyed the peace and quiet, several metres away the traffic was going like the clappers, though it had nothing on the traffic I see every morning outside my window in Bangkok.
I walked down to a big statue of a soldier or a general pointing in the direction of Thailand, at his feet two women where laying garlands of bright orange marigolds and lighting incense sticks in prayer.
By now the sky was looking more threatening and I decided that I had indeed, earned myself a little beer and possibly something western to eat. Cue a BeerLao and a cheeseburger and chips, good old filth and I loved it, just to top it off I started reading a novel I picked up from the bargain box at a second hand bookshop earlier in the afternoon. Jackie Collins. Wow, sometimes I surprise myself with my utter lack of shame. After finishing my beer and burger and picking the grass seeds out of one of my trouser legs, I took my book back to my hotel room and read till the wee hours of the morning, allowing me to kill the bed bugs which crawled out when I should have been sleeping. Ugh.
The next day I woke up late, got myself a cup of tea with milk and a fresh roll filled with scrambled eggs bacon and tomato. Heaven. I finished packing my bags, nabbing the towel, soap and the toilet roll and set out for the bus station. I got there about 12.30 and having confirmed the bus times to the train station in Thanaleng I walked to the embassy to collect my passport. I walked the VERY long way, taking a wrong turn off the huge intersection around Patuxai and walking about 30 minutes in the wrong direction before I realised my mistake. Getting directions I took my red sweating body to the Embassy getting there one hour after I'd planned to (the visa collection booths are open between 1 and 3 in the afternoon), luckily at 2pm I was the only person there and was in and out in a flash, well not quite a flash – I stood in front of the free standing air-conditioning machine and let the ice-cold air blast over me before heading back into town.
It only took my twenty minutes to get to the bus station and I snagged one of the last seats on the minibus and sat happily in the back making my own little puddle of sweat enjoying the intermittent puffs of breeze through the open window. It felt like ages before we left but it didn't take us that long to get to the bus terminal at the friendship bridge, the railway station was further on and I asked to be dropped off there. The driver almost managed, he overshot the turning off for the station so I had to walk back and then a good two kilometres (which felt like rather a lot after all the walking in the midday sun) before finally seeing the station in the distance. Not wanting to have walked all this way and miss the train I kept my pace up only to find that the train left at 5pm, it was well before 4pm. I felt a bit like crying but paid my exit fee, got stamped out and then went and washed under my arms and my filthy feet in the toilets. Feeling fresher I sat down and started on a new book I'd swapped at my infested hotel, Black Widow by Bart Davis.
The train took us back over the friendship bridge and into Thailand where I flashed my snazzy new visa and was readmitted. I went directly to the ticket desk having elected to take the risk and buy the ticket back to Bangkok myself and not through one of the agencies which added a huge mark-up, I was in luck and got an air-conditioned berth that night back to the city. Business taken care of I went over the road to an old train carriage which had been renovated and made into a small library, with free internet. I got hold of Djalma let him know I was coming back and everything was okay then I took my hungry stomach to a nearby restaurant and filled it with a large amount of delicious stir-fried chicken noodles before going back to find my train and get the hell home.
Despite the train being behind schedule, we were woken up just after 6am so the attendant could take our bed sheets and stow away the upper berths (they folded out like a glove compartment door). We arrived in Bangkok an hour late at 7.30 and I decided that walking home would be nice and easy and then promptly got quite lost. Will I ever learn? It took me an hour and a half to walk from the station to our flat and I was knackered by the time I got there – it was Thursday morning by now. Thank god the tallest building in the city is next to our Soi (road). Kicking back in bed we watched an episode of possibly the best ever series in the whole world, Lie To Me, and then 3 Star Wars films back to back only broken up by the need for some lunch, noodles at the pork noodle man on the corner. It was so good to be back home, sightseeing by myself was fun, but it also sucked not having anyone to share it with.
On Friday I tried to be good and follow some sort of plan for the day, after collecting Djalma's freshly ironed shirts from the dry cleaning lady I headed back up to our room to write for two hours, do some yoga and then write a bit more. I just about managed except that I wrote hardly anything during those two hours – just a week's worth of diary which isn't much and then the yoga tired me out so much that I fell asleep on my mat. After a shower I finished the leftovers from breakfast just in time for Djalma to walk back through the door having finished for the day with some duck and rice. We had an awful lot of duck that week!
After another episode of LTM (Lie To Me) and a Star Wars film we ate Pringles, drank a couple of beers and played cards – Djalma beat me so often it took all the fun out of playing.
The weekend passed in a blur, on Saturday I got up early and did some yoga and then we walked down to the Youth Centre which Djalma had been told was only 40TBH a year, this equates to approximately 1 English Pound, for as many visits as you like. We took our passports stopping only to get an iced sweet milky red tea for me and to climb over a wall when we couldn't figure out a way round to the building. The staff were lovely, we filled in our forms, they took our pictures and printed us out little cards and then a happy little caretaker who seemed to know everyone took us to a medical centre to get a piece of paper saying we were in good health (for use of the swimming pool). We went back to our hotel, feeling excited about the gym, the table tennis, the badminton and the normal tennis but sat down in front of the computer and watched LTM instead. Evening closed in and we shared a beer on our little balcony watching the traffic whiz by, we got some supplies for the following day and then played cards for a couple of hours before bed.
We had planned to take out the free bikes and do a spot of sightseeing on Sunday but it b=never happened, feeling really lazy and I mean really lazy cracked open a few beers and proceeded to play cards all morning and all afternoon, eating crisps and listening to music. I was on an incredible winning streak in the morning but the beer took it's toll and I started losing heavily in the afternoon, not so good for Little Miss Grumpy!
Nothing like a 6am start on a Monday morning, we walked back to our station got my overnight ticket to the border and then returned home, me to sleep and Djalma to get ready for work. When I did finally get up around mid-morning Djalma was already at school getting ready for his first class, no preparation needed, just placements tests and a fair bit of negative shite from his co-workers, who by the way are actually really nice, just apparently not that into motivating their students. He brought some duck and rice home for lunch and then I sorted through the rest of my stuff for the visa run.
We left around 6ish for my 8.30pm train, getting the BTS and the Metro to the main station, Hua Lampong where we sat and had a quick dinner of pork ball noodles, the place was crawling with roaches but none of them seemed to be doing backstrokes in our broth, thankfully. Quarter of an hour before my train was due to leave I got into my air-conditioned carriage and kissed my husband goodbye, then settled into my berth listening to my Ipod.
We were late arriving at Nong Khai, the last stop on the Thai border before crossing the friendship bridge over the latte coloured water of the Mekong River, but the connecting train waited for us and after we were stamped out of Thailand a big group of backpackers, myself included, sat on the train and waited to be ferried across the water and into Laos.
The train ride only took 15 minutes when it did eventually get moving and we arrived in Thanaleng (pronounced Tanaleng) the first stop on the Laos border only 20odd kilometres away from the capital, Vientiane, but unfortunately without any rail connection there. Buying my $35 visa and jumping on one of the shared open backed taxis, I headed further into French Laos. Fortunately for me an English/Thai couple were also headed towards the embassy and I got off there as well, submitting my application form and payment before walking into town.
 |
| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
After changing a few of my USD I followed directions and the map and found myself right where I wanted to be, unfortunately my hotel of choice (cheapest and best!) was full so I took a room in the one next door and after a MUCH needed shower I headed for breakfast.
Sitting down in the Scandinavian Bakery recommended by the LP guidebook I indulged in a baguette almost as long as my arm with ham, cheese and salad, things I'd almost forgotten the taste of. After planning the rest of my day I headed out in the direction of Wat Si Saket hoping to find a bank and an internet café along the way, no such luck – I made it to the tourist attraction before I even saw a bank. Fortunately for me, even after paying for my hotel room and breakfast, I had just enough to cover the entrance fee a whopping 5000kip, which works out at about 60c or 40p and that was the tourist rate.
 |
| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
Ignoring my thirst – it was hot and sunny, I spent over an hour walking round the grounds and the partially open rooms facing inward to the main square and the room with the big Buddha. Wat Si Saket (a Wat as I think you know by now is a Monastery Temple) is open to paying visitors, there wasn't a monk in sight, it was built in 1818 by King Anouvong and is the oldest temple in Vientiane.
 |
| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
It's special because in the small niches spaced in regular intervals on the walls in the 3 walled rooms, the are over 2000 small silver and ceramic Buddha images and if that wasn't enough, underneath these wall mounted deities there are over 300 seated and standing Buddhas of varying size, age and material.
 |
| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
It was a beautiful place to walk round and most of the Buddhas had robes as well, some where pretty funky others quite tame but all of them were orange or gold. In the grounds outside there were some beautiful shrines to those passed away, most were white with plenty of gold painted detail and a couple were mirrored, covered in lots of cut mirror reflecting the sky and the trees.
 |
| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
Wandering through the grass I managed to collect hundreds of annoying grass seeds in my voluminous trousers legs, they scratched and pricked at my legs the whole afternoon. My parched throat calling, I got directions from the ticket man and then some armed guards, to the nearest bank. JOY, can you guess... air-conditioning! I took my sunned body into the bank and changed 50USD and managed a good three glasses of their filtered water – just like in Bangkok a smile will get you everywhere, they were so friendly. Feeling refreshed and more than a little bit guilty that I hadn't made contact with Djalma, I walked until I found an internet café and managed to get him on line and assure him that I wasn't in Timbuktu or Cambodia somewhere (honestly with me on my own, you never can tell) and that I had already been to the embassy and had some fresh bread. Wifely duties done I decided to walk around the small French flavoured city a bit more. It felt quite liberating being myself in a new place and I quite enjoyed it, I decided to try and check out the museum, something Djalma wouldn't have liked anyway, but it was closed and looked crusty AND there was a no photography sign, so I crossed that one off my list.
 |
| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
Walking down the sun-baked streets I passed by many a Wat and decided to go in and have a look around, just stepping into the small gardens away from the road takes you into a different world. Monks in bright orange and I mean day-glo-what-on-earth-do-you-wash-your-robes-in orange wandered round in smalls groups chatting looking for all the world like uni students in the same uniform. The sky looked ominous but there were still huge patched where the light came pouring through so after sitting in the main room with the big guy and sending a prayer for my family back home I made my way to the river front.
 |
| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
I walked along the river front praying the sky wouldn't empty itself over my unprotected camera and enjoyed the peace and quiet, several metres away the traffic was going like the clappers, though it had nothing on the traffic I see every morning outside my window in Bangkok.
 |
| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
I walked down to a big statue of a soldier or a general pointing in the direction of Thailand, at his feet two women where laying garlands of bright orange marigolds and lighting incense sticks in prayer.
 |
| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
By now the sky was looking more threatening and I decided that I had indeed, earned myself a little beer and possibly something western to eat. Cue a BeerLao and a cheeseburger and chips, good old filth and I loved it, just to top it off I started reading a novel I picked up from the bargain box at a second hand bookshop earlier in the afternoon. Jackie Collins. Wow, sometimes I surprise myself with my utter lack of shame. After finishing my beer and burger and picking the grass seeds out of one of my trouser legs, I took my book back to my hotel room and read till the wee hours of the morning, allowing me to kill the bed bugs which crawled out when I should have been sleeping. Ugh.
 |
| From Week Five: Getting a visa in Vientiane |
The next day I woke up late, got myself a cup of tea with milk and a fresh roll filled with scrambled eggs bacon and tomato. Heaven. I finished packing my bags, nabbing the towel, soap and the toilet roll and set out for the bus station. I got there about 12.30 and having confirmed the bus times to the train station in Thanaleng I walked to the embassy to collect my passport. I walked the VERY long way, taking a wrong turn off the huge intersection around Patuxai and walking about 30 minutes in the wrong direction before I realised my mistake. Getting directions I took my red sweating body to the Embassy getting there one hour after I'd planned to (the visa collection booths are open between 1 and 3 in the afternoon), luckily at 2pm I was the only person there and was in and out in a flash, well not quite a flash – I stood in front of the free standing air-conditioning machine and let the ice-cold air blast over me before heading back into town.
It only took my twenty minutes to get to the bus station and I snagged one of the last seats on the minibus and sat happily in the back making my own little puddle of sweat enjoying the intermittent puffs of breeze through the open window. It felt like ages before we left but it didn't take us that long to get to the bus terminal at the friendship bridge, the railway station was further on and I asked to be dropped off there. The driver almost managed, he overshot the turning off for the station so I had to walk back and then a good two kilometres (which felt like rather a lot after all the walking in the midday sun) before finally seeing the station in the distance. Not wanting to have walked all this way and miss the train I kept my pace up only to find that the train left at 5pm, it was well before 4pm. I felt a bit like crying but paid my exit fee, got stamped out and then went and washed under my arms and my filthy feet in the toilets. Feeling fresher I sat down and started on a new book I'd swapped at my infested hotel, Black Widow by Bart Davis.
The train took us back over the friendship bridge and into Thailand where I flashed my snazzy new visa and was readmitted. I went directly to the ticket desk having elected to take the risk and buy the ticket back to Bangkok myself and not through one of the agencies which added a huge mark-up, I was in luck and got an air-conditioned berth that night back to the city. Business taken care of I went over the road to an old train carriage which had been renovated and made into a small library, with free internet. I got hold of Djalma let him know I was coming back and everything was okay then I took my hungry stomach to a nearby restaurant and filled it with a large amount of delicious stir-fried chicken noodles before going back to find my train and get the hell home.
Despite the train being behind schedule, we were woken up just after 6am so the attendant could take our bed sheets and stow away the upper berths (they folded out like a glove compartment door). We arrived in Bangkok an hour late at 7.30 and I decided that walking home would be nice and easy and then promptly got quite lost. Will I ever learn? It took me an hour and a half to walk from the station to our flat and I was knackered by the time I got there – it was Thursday morning by now. Thank god the tallest building in the city is next to our Soi (road). Kicking back in bed we watched an episode of possibly the best ever series in the whole world, Lie To Me, and then 3 Star Wars films back to back only broken up by the need for some lunch, noodles at the pork noodle man on the corner. It was so good to be back home, sightseeing by myself was fun, but it also sucked not having anyone to share it with.
On Friday I tried to be good and follow some sort of plan for the day, after collecting Djalma's freshly ironed shirts from the dry cleaning lady I headed back up to our room to write for two hours, do some yoga and then write a bit more. I just about managed except that I wrote hardly anything during those two hours – just a week's worth of diary which isn't much and then the yoga tired me out so much that I fell asleep on my mat. After a shower I finished the leftovers from breakfast just in time for Djalma to walk back through the door having finished for the day with some duck and rice. We had an awful lot of duck that week!
After another episode of LTM (Lie To Me) and a Star Wars film we ate Pringles, drank a couple of beers and played cards – Djalma beat me so often it took all the fun out of playing.
The weekend passed in a blur, on Saturday I got up early and did some yoga and then we walked down to the Youth Centre which Djalma had been told was only 40TBH a year, this equates to approximately 1 English Pound, for as many visits as you like. We took our passports stopping only to get an iced sweet milky red tea for me and to climb over a wall when we couldn't figure out a way round to the building. The staff were lovely, we filled in our forms, they took our pictures and printed us out little cards and then a happy little caretaker who seemed to know everyone took us to a medical centre to get a piece of paper saying we were in good health (for use of the swimming pool). We went back to our hotel, feeling excited about the gym, the table tennis, the badminton and the normal tennis but sat down in front of the computer and watched LTM instead. Evening closed in and we shared a beer on our little balcony watching the traffic whiz by, we got some supplies for the following day and then played cards for a couple of hours before bed.
We had planned to take out the free bikes and do a spot of sightseeing on Sunday but it b=never happened, feeling really lazy and I mean really lazy cracked open a few beers and proceeded to play cards all morning and all afternoon, eating crisps and listening to music. I was on an incredible winning streak in the morning but the beer took it's toll and I started losing heavily in the afternoon, not so good for Little Miss Grumpy!
Bangkok, Thailand: Week Four
30th May - 5th June 2011
After such a lovely birthday dinner on Sunday, we were both surprised and more than a bit miffed when we suffered from the runs, I stayed in bed while Djalma went into school to print off test papers to practise on.
On Tuesday I headed out of the apartment at Djalma request to give him some space, after a bit of deliberation I headed back to Coffee alley where we'd had my birthday breakfast. I spent the day downloading the complete series of Star Wars, writing my diary and wasting time on FB. I didn't get back until late having visited Tesco right at the opposite end of town, the last stop on the BTS, and getting dinner before heading up to our flat with the groceries. It was 10pm when I finally knocked on the door to be let in, Djalma was more than relieved that I hadn't managed to get lost or be kidnapped! At Tesco I also found some shoes which fell apart as soon as I wore them the next day, after giving me two blisters on each foot. Joy.
Wednesday = Movie Day! We decided to go to our local cinema in a smaller shopping centre complex, it was actually more expensive than the bigger better cinema in Central World where we went before. During the day Djalma studied and did a practice test while I did the laundry and got food from our Chinese dude on the corner. We left early afternoon and went to see the Hangover 2, based in Thailand! By the way, if you do see the film, bear in mind that the cockroaches aren't all that big, not everywhere (I'm keeping one hostage under a plastic cup in our bathroom as I type) and that Bangkok is brimming if not overflowing with 7-Elevens. Seriously their ham and cheese toasties are one of the reasons that I'm so happy to be staying in this great city.
Thursday blurred by, we tried to plan the Aquarium for Friday but it fell through, we got to Siam Paragon (the Aquarium is located on the ground floor) neither of us were really in mood especially with Djalma having to focus on studying for the IELTS test, we went to the food-court which was massive for a doughnut and a crap coffee. We decided to have a look round and discovered an Orchid show so we had a look round the exhibition which was also huge and I got snap happy with all the beautiful flowers. We went home and kicked back to watch the first Star Wars film 'A New Hope'.
We decided to haul our asses out on Saturday and walked to the nearest government run bicycle station. They took copies of our passports, gave us a map with a cycle route and we were off on our free bikes.
The tour took us all around the West side of the river and because we took so many pictures I'll list the places in the order we visited them in, with a spot of background information;
Wat Dusidaram Worawiharn; is an old Wat (a Wat is a monastery temple) near the mouth of Bangkok Soi Canal (a back water canal), and, I quote, 'an exquisite piece of traditional Thai architecture'. It was all locked up when we visited but there were turtles swimming in a small green pond under a small wooden building and lots of small figurines adorning the outer windowsills.
The Royal Barge Museum; houses eight royal barges which were classified as national treasures after 1974 when the Fine Arts Dept. were assigned to renovate them. When we visited we paid a small entrance fee for us and the camera and watched as women and a couple of men painstakingly applied lacquer/paint to the delicate detail.
They all had incredible figureheads and jewelled detail on the sides not to mention lots of little polished shiny squares which sparkled in the light. I got the most of my camera's admission fee (I hate it when they charge you for your camera) and Djalma took some time out and sat by the river waiting for me.
We cycled through little concrete lanes past houses and big patches overgrown with beautiful green weeds and flowers, dotted with little shrines housing small figures of Buddhas and his flower and fizzy pop offerings.
We gave the Medical Museum a miss and cycled over a bridge (getting our bikes up the steps was great fun) and onto Wang Lang Market. There wasn't much to see, just the usual market stuff and lots of food stalls, we picked up some super greasy spring rolls and some tiny squares of bread with a dollop of mystery paste all deep fried. My arteries had a field day. Luckily they didn't seize up before we got to our next stop...
Wat Rakang Kositaram; an ancient monastery lively with families, small children ringing bells and those a little older sending silent prayers along with incense and flowers to Buddha. It was a beautiful monastery but raucous, while I wandered round the grounds – there is always more than one building in Wats – Djalma waited outside.
We cycled up to Trok Matoom which is famous for syrupy sweets made from bael fruit but the little shop was shut so we stopped nearby for a coca cola and a breather before heading back into the alleys and onto our next stop.
Wat Kalayanamitrworamahavihan; is on land donated by a guy along with his own house to King Rama III who designated it as a Royal Temple around 1825, it is right opposite a river bus stop and out the front a small family cooked meat over a charcoal barbecue to sell to temple goers.
The atmosphere inside was a lot more peaceful and I wandered round while Djalma watched greedy pigeons being fed multicoloured bits of rice fluff.
We weren't long from the end of our little trip and for the last leg, the map took us right out on the water, we cycled along a path built on stilts which passed by houses built the same way, it was beautiful. Along the way we stopped off at our final sightseeing destination, Santa Cruz Church.
In 1769 the King granted the Portuguese a plot of land to build a church the first one, a wooden structure was replaced by a second one with a very Chinese design and was then replaced in 1913 this time in a neoclassic and renaissance style (no idea what this really means, I'm just quoting from the guidebook here). We cycled up and took a look around, it was a beautiful church a bit like a cake, on steroids, but beautiful. Inside there were stained glass windows and two angels holding sea shell bowls, a beautiful breeze flowed through the main hall which took the edge off the afternoon heat.
We left the church behind and cycled the last few minutes to a different cycle station where we checked our bikes back in and left to meet one of Djalma's old friends from Rio Claro in Brazil.
After killing some time in a 7-Eleven (you've got to take the air-con where you can get it) we met up with Mateus and went to a small Thai restaurant where we kicked back over a couple of beers and some very nice Thai food, talking about the people hey knew in common and what they'd each been doing since school. We left Mateus fairly early, he had a plane to catch the next morning and we made our way home, content after a lovely day, good food and good company.
I spent Sunday working on all the photos (there were over 300 to sort through and edit), checking out ways to get to Laos to get a new visa, we went to a local train station in the evening to try and buy the tickets but although the station was open the ticket office was closed so we decided to go back first thing in the morning to book a sleeper berth to Nong Khai (the Thai side of the Thai-Lao border).
After such a lovely birthday dinner on Sunday, we were both surprised and more than a bit miffed when we suffered from the runs, I stayed in bed while Djalma went into school to print off test papers to practise on.
On Tuesday I headed out of the apartment at Djalma request to give him some space, after a bit of deliberation I headed back to Coffee alley where we'd had my birthday breakfast. I spent the day downloading the complete series of Star Wars, writing my diary and wasting time on FB. I didn't get back until late having visited Tesco right at the opposite end of town, the last stop on the BTS, and getting dinner before heading up to our flat with the groceries. It was 10pm when I finally knocked on the door to be let in, Djalma was more than relieved that I hadn't managed to get lost or be kidnapped! At Tesco I also found some shoes which fell apart as soon as I wore them the next day, after giving me two blisters on each foot. Joy.
Wednesday = Movie Day! We decided to go to our local cinema in a smaller shopping centre complex, it was actually more expensive than the bigger better cinema in Central World where we went before. During the day Djalma studied and did a practice test while I did the laundry and got food from our Chinese dude on the corner. We left early afternoon and went to see the Hangover 2, based in Thailand! By the way, if you do see the film, bear in mind that the cockroaches aren't all that big, not everywhere (I'm keeping one hostage under a plastic cup in our bathroom as I type) and that Bangkok is brimming if not overflowing with 7-Elevens. Seriously their ham and cheese toasties are one of the reasons that I'm so happy to be staying in this great city.
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
Thursday blurred by, we tried to plan the Aquarium for Friday but it fell through, we got to Siam Paragon (the Aquarium is located on the ground floor) neither of us were really in mood especially with Djalma having to focus on studying for the IELTS test, we went to the food-court which was massive for a doughnut and a crap coffee. We decided to have a look round and discovered an Orchid show so we had a look round the exhibition which was also huge and I got snap happy with all the beautiful flowers. We went home and kicked back to watch the first Star Wars film 'A New Hope'.
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
We decided to haul our asses out on Saturday and walked to the nearest government run bicycle station. They took copies of our passports, gave us a map with a cycle route and we were off on our free bikes.
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
The tour took us all around the West side of the river and because we took so many pictures I'll list the places in the order we visited them in, with a spot of background information;
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
Wat Dusidaram Worawiharn; is an old Wat (a Wat is a monastery temple) near the mouth of Bangkok Soi Canal (a back water canal), and, I quote, 'an exquisite piece of traditional Thai architecture'. It was all locked up when we visited but there were turtles swimming in a small green pond under a small wooden building and lots of small figurines adorning the outer windowsills.
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
The Royal Barge Museum; houses eight royal barges which were classified as national treasures after 1974 when the Fine Arts Dept. were assigned to renovate them. When we visited we paid a small entrance fee for us and the camera and watched as women and a couple of men painstakingly applied lacquer/paint to the delicate detail.
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
They all had incredible figureheads and jewelled detail on the sides not to mention lots of little polished shiny squares which sparkled in the light. I got the most of my camera's admission fee (I hate it when they charge you for your camera) and Djalma took some time out and sat by the river waiting for me.
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
We cycled through little concrete lanes past houses and big patches overgrown with beautiful green weeds and flowers, dotted with little shrines housing small figures of Buddhas and his flower and fizzy pop offerings.
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
We gave the Medical Museum a miss and cycled over a bridge (getting our bikes up the steps was great fun) and onto Wang Lang Market. There wasn't much to see, just the usual market stuff and lots of food stalls, we picked up some super greasy spring rolls and some tiny squares of bread with a dollop of mystery paste all deep fried. My arteries had a field day. Luckily they didn't seize up before we got to our next stop...
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
Wat Rakang Kositaram; an ancient monastery lively with families, small children ringing bells and those a little older sending silent prayers along with incense and flowers to Buddha. It was a beautiful monastery but raucous, while I wandered round the grounds – there is always more than one building in Wats – Djalma waited outside.
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
We cycled up to Trok Matoom which is famous for syrupy sweets made from bael fruit but the little shop was shut so we stopped nearby for a coca cola and a breather before heading back into the alleys and onto our next stop.
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
Wat Kalayanamitrworamahavihan; is on land donated by a guy along with his own house to King Rama III who designated it as a Royal Temple around 1825, it is right opposite a river bus stop and out the front a small family cooked meat over a charcoal barbecue to sell to temple goers.
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| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
The atmosphere inside was a lot more peaceful and I wandered round while Djalma watched greedy pigeons being fed multicoloured bits of rice fluff.
 |
| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
We weren't long from the end of our little trip and for the last leg, the map took us right out on the water, we cycled along a path built on stilts which passed by houses built the same way, it was beautiful. Along the way we stopped off at our final sightseeing destination, Santa Cruz Church.
 |
| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
In 1769 the King granted the Portuguese a plot of land to build a church the first one, a wooden structure was replaced by a second one with a very Chinese design and was then replaced in 1913 this time in a neoclassic and renaissance style (no idea what this really means, I'm just quoting from the guidebook here). We cycled up and took a look around, it was a beautiful church a bit like a cake, on steroids, but beautiful. Inside there were stained glass windows and two angels holding sea shell bowls, a beautiful breeze flowed through the main hall which took the edge off the afternoon heat.
 |
| From Week Four: Bangkok, Thailand |
We left the church behind and cycled the last few minutes to a different cycle station where we checked our bikes back in and left to meet one of Djalma's old friends from Rio Claro in Brazil.
After killing some time in a 7-Eleven (you've got to take the air-con where you can get it) we met up with Mateus and went to a small Thai restaurant where we kicked back over a couple of beers and some very nice Thai food, talking about the people hey knew in common and what they'd each been doing since school. We left Mateus fairly early, he had a plane to catch the next morning and we made our way home, content after a lovely day, good food and good company.
I spent Sunday working on all the photos (there were over 300 to sort through and edit), checking out ways to get to Laos to get a new visa, we went to a local train station in the evening to try and buy the tickets but although the station was open the ticket office was closed so we decided to go back first thing in the morning to book a sleeper berth to Nong Khai (the Thai side of the Thai-Lao border).
Monday, June 13, 2011
Bangkok, Thailand: Week Three
23rd – 29th May 2011
Monday morning saw us both with ENORMOUS headaches courtesy of severe de-hydration and stupidity. I couldn't believe just how much my head was pounding but managed to sit up to take an aspirin which, just for kicks, my stomach forcefully ejected North along with all the water I had managed thus far to keep down. I felt so wretched that I couldn't even face breakfast I managed to get myself there, with no small amount of cajoling from my dearest husband, but the effort to keep myself upright was just to much and I headed up to our room to wallow in pain and self pity.
We checked out around one in the afternoon, feeling only slightly more human. I confess I pinched one of the big white towels, a flannel as well as all the soap, shampoo and bog roll. One classy lady, you don't need to tell me! Making off with the loot after a minor panic waiting for our room to be okayed before we could check out, we got into a taxi and speeded to our new apartment. Djalma sorted out all the paperwork and details while I wilted, sorry, waited outside for him and the keys. Our long stay apartment didn't include any sheets, nothing other than the permanent fixtures and fittings. Crap – a spot of home ware shopping is not what you want when recovering from a hangover. We headed out to town, a surprisingly short walk, we didn't realise just how central we were – a fifteen minute walk to the main street with all the big shopping centres.
We spent a painfully long time inspecting the bed linen in Big-C, a huge supermarket selling everything you could possibly want, except affordable high thread count 100% cotton sheets, we settled on a fetching green design, only to find when we got home that they were for a queen size bed and not king (if only we had realised when congratulating ourselves at the checkout for the discounted price). We decided on some filth for lunch and got a McDonald's. Djalma had forgotten to bring out enough money for bed sheets and a fan, we decided to splurge and put the air-conditioning on that night and use the rest of the money to go to the cinema. When we got to the box-office there weren't any 3D films on and Djalma refused to watch a boring old normal film which we would be able to download for free and watch on the computer at home. We headed back home on the bus and tried to fit our incorrectly sized sheets on our too-big bed before giving in and sleeping on our sarong under the air-con.
The following day, Wednesday, we were slightly more with it, Djalma taught part of a lesson as part of his interview and was offered a job! Meanwhile I went back to Big-C to get household supplies and kicked back at home reading the awesome 'Touching the Void'. We went out for noodles with duck and then onto the cinema where we watched Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D (not really worth the 3D effects in my opinion but Mr Depp was gorgeous as ever).
Back at home I read out listening tests for the informal IELTS (International English Language Testing System) Djalma was going to take as a part of his offer of work. He studied a lot, reading, listening and especially writing.
Thursday and Friday passed by without much to comment on, I practised yoga and Djalma studies, his groups weren't due to start for almost two weeks. On Saturday I took myself off to the market, Djalma too traumatised from previous joint shopping experiences to come with me. I got on the right bus, got off at the right place and after a long while found the right section (no mean feat if you remember that Chatuchak Market covers 35 acres). I spent three solid hours trawling the market and found nothing, not a sausage, the only things I bought were a coconut ice-cream and a lime juice drink. Not the most successful shopping trip ever, all I want is a pair of shoes! That evening Djalma and I got some big noodles with pork and kale from the local Chinese/Thai joint and then lay in bed watching the awful hummus filled film; Don't Mess with the Zohan.
Sunday. My 27th Birthday. Wrinkles. Things heading South. Older. Not much wiser. Another birthday. I did some yoga in the morning, following one of the downloaded videos, getting in damage limitation for all the cakes I planned to eat later in the day. We headed across town on the BTS to Sukhumvit, an arterial road with plenty of capillaries leading off it (these side lanes are called Sois) lined with bars, restaurants and cafés We had done a spot of research and headed to Coffee Alley which served up good coffee, good food and had free wifi. We had blended iced coffees and an excellent breakfast – warmed croissants, mine was a big one filled with bacon and salad and lots of other yummy things, Djalma had smaller ones with a cooked breakfast.
We sat in the air-con and dialled my Nan and my Mum on Skype. We had planned to use some of the wedding money given us by Colin and Mary (my Dad's cousin) to go to the Aquarium in one of the shopping centres, but decided to give it a miss and go during the week when we anticipated it would be quieter. After a couple of hours we left the café behind and decided to head to a different shopping centre, MBK near Siam Square.
To look for... shoes. Another three hours before we gave up, it wasn't all in vain though, we passed by a Little Miss Grumpy T-shirt fitting my glum mood as we searched for shoes. After giving up we took a bus across the river to one of the riverside restaurants, Lakeside, where we had a delicious cold beer and some gorgeous Thai food; deep fried pork and prawn balls, a beautiful salad (I forget whether it was green mango/papaya or either of them) and a seafood curry served in a hollowed our coconut shell with white rice. It was gorgeous food and a beautiful setting, we had a table right by the edge and looked out over the river and the reflections of the city lights.
Stomachs full and legs tired, we headed over the bridge to try and get a bus home. The bridge was full of groups of friends with picnics and drinks, a group of girls were mixing something that looked suspiciously like cocktails, I was very impressed, there were also groups of men fishing with their rods propped up against the railings. It took us a good half an hour to get over the bridge, a ten minute walk, by now it was about 11pm and the buses had pretty much stopped so after a few minutes of mulling over our chances of getting home we decided to get a taxi.
We settled back in bed and watch a film, I wanted something light and fluffy so we put Sandra Bullock on in Miss Congeniality, love it! All in, despite the fruitless shoe search, it was a lovely birthday with some delicious food and some quality time with Djalma.
Monday morning saw us both with ENORMOUS headaches courtesy of severe de-hydration and stupidity. I couldn't believe just how much my head was pounding but managed to sit up to take an aspirin which, just for kicks, my stomach forcefully ejected North along with all the water I had managed thus far to keep down. I felt so wretched that I couldn't even face breakfast I managed to get myself there, with no small amount of cajoling from my dearest husband, but the effort to keep myself upright was just to much and I headed up to our room to wallow in pain and self pity.
We checked out around one in the afternoon, feeling only slightly more human. I confess I pinched one of the big white towels, a flannel as well as all the soap, shampoo and bog roll. One classy lady, you don't need to tell me! Making off with the loot after a minor panic waiting for our room to be okayed before we could check out, we got into a taxi and speeded to our new apartment. Djalma sorted out all the paperwork and details while I wilted, sorry, waited outside for him and the keys. Our long stay apartment didn't include any sheets, nothing other than the permanent fixtures and fittings. Crap – a spot of home ware shopping is not what you want when recovering from a hangover. We headed out to town, a surprisingly short walk, we didn't realise just how central we were – a fifteen minute walk to the main street with all the big shopping centres.
We spent a painfully long time inspecting the bed linen in Big-C, a huge supermarket selling everything you could possibly want, except affordable high thread count 100% cotton sheets, we settled on a fetching green design, only to find when we got home that they were for a queen size bed and not king (if only we had realised when congratulating ourselves at the checkout for the discounted price). We decided on some filth for lunch and got a McDonald's. Djalma had forgotten to bring out enough money for bed sheets and a fan, we decided to splurge and put the air-conditioning on that night and use the rest of the money to go to the cinema. When we got to the box-office there weren't any 3D films on and Djalma refused to watch a boring old normal film which we would be able to download for free and watch on the computer at home. We headed back home on the bus and tried to fit our incorrectly sized sheets on our too-big bed before giving in and sleeping on our sarong under the air-con.
The following day, Wednesday, we were slightly more with it, Djalma taught part of a lesson as part of his interview and was offered a job! Meanwhile I went back to Big-C to get household supplies and kicked back at home reading the awesome 'Touching the Void'. We went out for noodles with duck and then onto the cinema where we watched Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D (not really worth the 3D effects in my opinion but Mr Depp was gorgeous as ever).
Back at home I read out listening tests for the informal IELTS (International English Language Testing System) Djalma was going to take as a part of his offer of work. He studied a lot, reading, listening and especially writing.
Thursday and Friday passed by without much to comment on, I practised yoga and Djalma studies, his groups weren't due to start for almost two weeks. On Saturday I took myself off to the market, Djalma too traumatised from previous joint shopping experiences to come with me. I got on the right bus, got off at the right place and after a long while found the right section (no mean feat if you remember that Chatuchak Market covers 35 acres). I spent three solid hours trawling the market and found nothing, not a sausage, the only things I bought were a coconut ice-cream and a lime juice drink. Not the most successful shopping trip ever, all I want is a pair of shoes! That evening Djalma and I got some big noodles with pork and kale from the local Chinese/Thai joint and then lay in bed watching the awful hummus filled film; Don't Mess with the Zohan.
 |
| From Week Three: Bangkok, Thailand |
Sunday. My 27th Birthday. Wrinkles. Things heading South. Older. Not much wiser. Another birthday. I did some yoga in the morning, following one of the downloaded videos, getting in damage limitation for all the cakes I planned to eat later in the day. We headed across town on the BTS to Sukhumvit, an arterial road with plenty of capillaries leading off it (these side lanes are called Sois) lined with bars, restaurants and cafés We had done a spot of research and headed to Coffee Alley which served up good coffee, good food and had free wifi. We had blended iced coffees and an excellent breakfast – warmed croissants, mine was a big one filled with bacon and salad and lots of other yummy things, Djalma had smaller ones with a cooked breakfast.
 |
| From Week Three: Bangkok, Thailand |
We sat in the air-con and dialled my Nan and my Mum on Skype. We had planned to use some of the wedding money given us by Colin and Mary (my Dad's cousin) to go to the Aquarium in one of the shopping centres, but decided to give it a miss and go during the week when we anticipated it would be quieter. After a couple of hours we left the café behind and decided to head to a different shopping centre, MBK near Siam Square.
 |
| From Week Three: Bangkok, Thailand |
To look for... shoes. Another three hours before we gave up, it wasn't all in vain though, we passed by a Little Miss Grumpy T-shirt fitting my glum mood as we searched for shoes. After giving up we took a bus across the river to one of the riverside restaurants, Lakeside, where we had a delicious cold beer and some gorgeous Thai food; deep fried pork and prawn balls, a beautiful salad (I forget whether it was green mango/papaya or either of them) and a seafood curry served in a hollowed our coconut shell with white rice. It was gorgeous food and a beautiful setting, we had a table right by the edge and looked out over the river and the reflections of the city lights.
 |
| From Week Three: Bangkok, Thailand |
Stomachs full and legs tired, we headed over the bridge to try and get a bus home. The bridge was full of groups of friends with picnics and drinks, a group of girls were mixing something that looked suspiciously like cocktails, I was very impressed, there were also groups of men fishing with their rods propped up against the railings. It took us a good half an hour to get over the bridge, a ten minute walk, by now it was about 11pm and the buses had pretty much stopped so after a few minutes of mulling over our chances of getting home we decided to get a taxi.
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| From Week Three: Bangkok, Thailand |
We settled back in bed and watch a film, I wanted something light and fluffy so we put Sandra Bullock on in Miss Congeniality, love it! All in, despite the fruitless shoe search, it was a lovely birthday with some delicious food and some quality time with Djalma.
Bangkok, Thailand: Week Two
16th - 22nd May 2011
With Djalma out looking for jobs and no-one to jolly me out of bed, I can't say that I did much. I did however use this time to do a fair bit of internet research, specifically research into a nice little hotel in which to spend our first anniversary, I would have rather spent it on the street than in our crusty little room.
On Tuesday Djalma decided a little break from the job hunting was in order and so we set off early afternoon to take a little trip on the Mae Nam Chao Phraya. We got on one of the many river buses in the form of a long and very speedy boat. We left the lurching, swaying “bus stand” behind and stepped aboard the boat just before it promptly zoomed off, heading for the next stop – apparently they aren't known for dawdling at the stops. All the seats were taken so we stood at the back in a little pen specifically built for overflow and to stop non sea-legged customers from falling over board.
Arriving at our stop, we hastily got off with a rush of other people and indulged in what I think was a coconut milk and sweetcorn ice-cream, it was odd but refreshing. On the BTS (sky train) we zoomed out to Lumpini Park, the city's largest park named after the birthplace of the Buddha (Lumbini in Nepal), enjoying the elevated view of the city's skyscrapers and looking down at the ribbons of traffic.
We wandered round the park, minding out the way of joggers and the occasional bike, stopping to watch the reflections of the city skyline in the water of one of the many artificial ponds, not to mention a huge outdoor aerobics class. Not feeling as energetic as the kids going for it trying to imitate the instructors as closely as possible, we didn't stay long and headed back home on a bus.
The days leading up to Sunday and our anniversary passed by in a flurry, we booked our hotel, Djalma continued job hunting, we found ourselves an apartment and then to splash out and celebrate we had an excellent fish dinner on a roadside restaurant which always looked busy.
Sunday rolled round and we packed up our things which, scattered all over the room hid a small army of resting mosquitoes. Feeling elated to leave the cat-wee hole behind we got into a taxi and headed to our hotel for the day, The Siam Heritage.
After checking we went up to our very pretty room, cranked up the air-conditioning and congratulated ourselves for getting such a nice hotel. Our room got so cold that we had a hot shower, the first in many months and with real pressure too, I was in seventh heaven! We put the bottle of champagne we had bought in Tesco for the occasion in the fridge and kicked back and relaxed.
After a little snooze we decided to take our champagne up to the swimming pool on the rooftop and mix it with our free orange juice (complimentary form the hotel on arrival). We sat on the sun loungers while the lights of Bangkok came on and lightening flashed in the distance. It was a warm sultry evening and we took our Buck's Fizz into the pool where we sat underneath the Frangipani trees which overhung the water.
After swilling down the last of the champagne we headed back to our room to get ready. I put on my new dress, very low-cut and very short (I needed to be drunk to wear it) a load of slap, a bindi and finished the look with my flip-flops. Despite hours looking in Chatuchak market for shoes, three hours to be precise, I still had nothing decent to wear on my feet.
We headed out on Silom and into Pat Pong, the infamous sex district. DON'T WORRY mum it wasn't as bad as it sounds! I was pretty bored by the endless “pussy” lists shoved in our faces, small little pimps asking us if we wanted to see a ping pong show, or perhaps one with bananas, chopsticks, razors... err no thanks mate. We sat down at one of the bars, it was a small open joint with high chairs on the street and minus half naked dancing girls, we ordered some Long Island Iced Tea's and a couple of B-52s and sat and talked in our little warm bubble of first anniversary love. Fortified by the drinks we headed down the street which after 6pm comes alive as a famous market street; Patpong Night Market on Soi 1 and 2, still no shoes.
Giving up the shoe search we decided to grab another drink and got a couple of pre-mixed cocktails from a 7-Eleven, class all the way. They actually didn't taste too bad and we walked along the streets talking in-between dodging the pussy-list pimps. Feeling rather sozzled we decided on getting some food – it was around midnight and we hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Djalma vetoed PizzaHut, McDonald's and KFC telling me in no uncertain terms that we would not be eating at any of these joints on our anniversary.
Fortunately I listened and we stopped at a small Chinese restaurant plopped ourselves on the floor and ordered another beer and a series of dishes that we only had a vague idea of what they might be. It was great we worked on our two beers slowly, needing to focus on using the chopsticks without poking an eye out and enjoyed all the food out in front of us, thankfully none of our lucky dips were offal... or awful. We took our time and before long we were the only people left in the restaurant and the girls and boys were all ready to go home so we, feeling rather wobbly, stood up and left. We arrived back out our hotel where we promptly passed out without having drunk nearly enough water. I cannot even begin to describe the hangovers we suffered from the following day, needless to say mine was much much worse than Djalma's!
With Djalma out looking for jobs and no-one to jolly me out of bed, I can't say that I did much. I did however use this time to do a fair bit of internet research, specifically research into a nice little hotel in which to spend our first anniversary, I would have rather spent it on the street than in our crusty little room.
 |
| From Week Two: Bangkok, Thailand |
On Tuesday Djalma decided a little break from the job hunting was in order and so we set off early afternoon to take a little trip on the Mae Nam Chao Phraya. We got on one of the many river buses in the form of a long and very speedy boat. We left the lurching, swaying “bus stand” behind and stepped aboard the boat just before it promptly zoomed off, heading for the next stop – apparently they aren't known for dawdling at the stops. All the seats were taken so we stood at the back in a little pen specifically built for overflow and to stop non sea-legged customers from falling over board.
 |
| From Week Two: Bangkok, Thailand |
Arriving at our stop, we hastily got off with a rush of other people and indulged in what I think was a coconut milk and sweetcorn ice-cream, it was odd but refreshing. On the BTS (sky train) we zoomed out to Lumpini Park, the city's largest park named after the birthplace of the Buddha (Lumbini in Nepal), enjoying the elevated view of the city's skyscrapers and looking down at the ribbons of traffic.
 |
| From Week Two: Bangkok, Thailand |
We wandered round the park, minding out the way of joggers and the occasional bike, stopping to watch the reflections of the city skyline in the water of one of the many artificial ponds, not to mention a huge outdoor aerobics class. Not feeling as energetic as the kids going for it trying to imitate the instructors as closely as possible, we didn't stay long and headed back home on a bus.
 |
| From Week Two: Bangkok, Thailand |
The days leading up to Sunday and our anniversary passed by in a flurry, we booked our hotel, Djalma continued job hunting, we found ourselves an apartment and then to splash out and celebrate we had an excellent fish dinner on a roadside restaurant which always looked busy.
Sunday rolled round and we packed up our things which, scattered all over the room hid a small army of resting mosquitoes. Feeling elated to leave the cat-wee hole behind we got into a taxi and headed to our hotel for the day, The Siam Heritage.
 |
| From Week Two: Bangkok, Thailand |
After checking we went up to our very pretty room, cranked up the air-conditioning and congratulated ourselves for getting such a nice hotel. Our room got so cold that we had a hot shower, the first in many months and with real pressure too, I was in seventh heaven! We put the bottle of champagne we had bought in Tesco for the occasion in the fridge and kicked back and relaxed.
 |
| From Week Two: Bangkok, Thailand |
After a little snooze we decided to take our champagne up to the swimming pool on the rooftop and mix it with our free orange juice (complimentary form the hotel on arrival). We sat on the sun loungers while the lights of Bangkok came on and lightening flashed in the distance. It was a warm sultry evening and we took our Buck's Fizz into the pool where we sat underneath the Frangipani trees which overhung the water.
 |
| From Week Two: Bangkok, Thailand |
After swilling down the last of the champagne we headed back to our room to get ready. I put on my new dress, very low-cut and very short (I needed to be drunk to wear it) a load of slap, a bindi and finished the look with my flip-flops. Despite hours looking in Chatuchak market for shoes, three hours to be precise, I still had nothing decent to wear on my feet.
 |
| From Week Two: Bangkok, Thailand |
We headed out on Silom and into Pat Pong, the infamous sex district. DON'T WORRY mum it wasn't as bad as it sounds! I was pretty bored by the endless “pussy” lists shoved in our faces, small little pimps asking us if we wanted to see a ping pong show, or perhaps one with bananas, chopsticks, razors... err no thanks mate. We sat down at one of the bars, it was a small open joint with high chairs on the street and minus half naked dancing girls, we ordered some Long Island Iced Tea's and a couple of B-52s and sat and talked in our little warm bubble of first anniversary love. Fortified by the drinks we headed down the street which after 6pm comes alive as a famous market street; Patpong Night Market on Soi 1 and 2, still no shoes.
 |
| From Week Two: Bangkok, Thailand |
Giving up the shoe search we decided to grab another drink and got a couple of pre-mixed cocktails from a 7-Eleven, class all the way. They actually didn't taste too bad and we walked along the streets talking in-between dodging the pussy-list pimps. Feeling rather sozzled we decided on getting some food – it was around midnight and we hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Djalma vetoed PizzaHut, McDonald's and KFC telling me in no uncertain terms that we would not be eating at any of these joints on our anniversary.
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| From Week Two: Bangkok, Thailand |
Fortunately I listened and we stopped at a small Chinese restaurant plopped ourselves on the floor and ordered another beer and a series of dishes that we only had a vague idea of what they might be. It was great we worked on our two beers slowly, needing to focus on using the chopsticks without poking an eye out and enjoyed all the food out in front of us, thankfully none of our lucky dips were offal... or awful. We took our time and before long we were the only people left in the restaurant and the girls and boys were all ready to go home so we, feeling rather wobbly, stood up and left. We arrived back out our hotel where we promptly passed out without having drunk nearly enough water. I cannot even begin to describe the hangovers we suffered from the following day, needless to say mine was much much worse than Djalma's!
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