9th August - 27th September 2011
Well, what do you know, creative beers work after all!
Back in Bangkok Djalma and I chilled for a few days before Ned and Berna returned from their trip up North, when they got back Djalma took his parents around the city while I tried to get things prepared for my Mum’s imminent arrival. I took them out to the Grand Palace for a day.
And after that Djalma took them out for a bit more sightseeing:
River Taxi
Wat Po
Thonburi
The Floating Market
Lumpini Park
and Erawan Shrine
Early afternoon I collected my Mum from the airport and after hugs and a few tears got her back to our apartment block where we’d arranged for her to have Berna and Ned’s old room. We met a little later on with the Borges/Martins crew and went out together for a little trip up Baiyoke as a welcome gesture to my English Mum and a farewell to my Brazilian parents. It was beautiful, we arrived just after sunset and had a cocktail in the lounge before facing the wet and the wind for a quick stroll around the top before heading down and out for dinner. We headed back to our apartments and waved goodbye to Ned and Berna.
Over the next week I almost managed to stick to the itinerary I set out for Mum, we followed the walking tour round Chinatown, visiting the world’s largest solid gold statue, of a Buddha, outside the temple loos my flip flops were pinched leaving me to curse and hop my way over the hot pavement to buy replacement footwear – a very fetching pair of bright blue plastic flip flops with a big plastic bow on the front – I confess I actually rather liked them. We continued on walking until our feet and legs couldn’t take much more, getting the Chao Phraya Express down to the nearest BTS stop. Mum LOVED it!
The next day we went to Chatuchak market – this was strictly a shopping trip so no photos and aside for some presents for people back home and a rather lovely silk handbag it was largely disappointing. Still, I don’t think a trip to Bangkok is complete without visiting at least one shopping centre/market.
Over the following week we had some big days of sightseeing as well as some lazy time by the pool, when I wasn’t feeling too great.
A mammoth day of tourism starting with a water taxi to a spot near The Golden Mount which we climbed to the top of and enjoyed the views out over the city, followed by an exhilarating tuk tuk ride through town to be dropped off at the Grand Palace.
We were rained in here which gave us plenty of time to really appreciate the vast yet delicate murals. We payed our respects to the emerald Buddha and wandered round the buildings getting a bit wet in the rain.
The next day we had an all yu can seafood buffet lunch paid for by Nan in the Baiyoke Sky Tower looking out over the city followed by a trip up to the revolving platform where we stood and watched the city go by, it was a wonderful afternoon helped along by a nice bottle of wine! We said goodbye to Djalma after that and Mum and I headed into town to stop by the BACC (Bangkok Art and Culture Centre) where they were showing an exhibition on the importance of different teachers in our lives. We also braved MBK, Bangkok’s busiest shopping centre to get Mum a pair of brown trousers which we spent plenty of time deliberating over (having discarded umpteen different dresses).
After a little Thai immersion in Bangkok we headed a little further South to Ko Chang (Elephant Island) we stayed for 3 nights on a peaceful beach overlooking the sea.
The place was beautiful and as there was only one road going round the island it was impossible to get lost. The first day after a sweaty walk down the beach we found a good hotel with large cabins on stilts right on the beachfront, at a price we could afford. We booked a cooking course for the following day and an elephant ride the day after. Having accomplished that we wandered up the beach treating ourselves to a little welcome cocktail.
The next day came around and we walked down the beach to meet our cooking teacher a lovely lady whose name means Nirvana, her team prepared all our ingredients, we did a bit of chopping but they shelled big juicy prawns and got the cream out of the coconuts. She gave us a little lesson in the history of some Thai dishes, wrote our names in Thai (COOL!) and then asked us what we’d like to cook. Over the course of the morning we cooked several different dishes (and ate them all) and she explained the different uses for lots of different herbs, roots and spices.
We cooked; Thai omelette, som tam salad (green papaya salad), tom kha (coconut based soup) tom yam (lemongrass based soup), phad Thai (Thai noodles), a quick dish with meat and vegetables, like a Thai stir fry, we steamed sticky rice which we ate with the salad and also mixed with coconut cream and ate with fresh mango for pudding (despite being fit to burst we couldn’t get enough of dessert).
At the end of our very long day, with orchids from the table presentation tucked into our hair, we walked along the beach talking about what a fantastic time we’d had and how lovely the day was and also that we wouldn’t need to eat again for the rest of the day, result!
Alas during the course of the day my back started to ache and got really quite bad, we moved our elephant trek back a day and spent the next day reading and playing cards, chilling out and eating some amazing fish with tamarind sauce.
The next day rolled around and we were picked up to be taken to the elephant camp at the Northern tip of the island, we climbed on top our Nellie and strode off into the jungle. It was a far more comfortable experience than the trek in Nepal – it sat two instead of four people instead of two and we didn’t move around as much. We sat atop our elephant until two thirds of the way through the mahout invited Mum to have a go at his job.
She inched forward on our little beast of burden until she was sitting astride his neck and then spent the remaining part of the elephant ride climbing on for dear life while screeching (occasionally) and laughing with delight.
Back in the elephant camp we were given bananas to feed our ride, true to form Mum withheld food until he asked nicely for it. We decided to leave the elephant washing for more adventurous souls and watched from the dry river bank instead.
After our elephant “experience” we were dropped off back near our beach. Instead of going directly back to the hotel we decided that since it was Mum’s holiday and that there was a nice Spa, she should definitely have a Spa afternoon, so we stopped at The Tropicana Hotel, easily the nicest on our posh beach and sorted her out with a three and a half hour session of massages, facials and minerals baths.
I collected her later in the day, having left her grinning like a kid in a sweet shop, and we walked back along the beach enjoying the last rays of sun. We wanted to go out somewhere different for dinner but after the most horrendous thunder and lightening the previous night, which we were right in the middle of, we decided to eat at our hotel, just in case – there was an outrageously beautiful sunset making the sky an incredible red – it made us wonder whether the same would happen again that night.
The next day we were up early to head back to Bangkok. A ferry ride, a minibus trip and a few hours later we arrived in Bangkok early afternoon, poor Mum shouldering my backpack because my back was still bad.
On Mum’s last full day we had a big day of tourism, we visited Lumpini Park with Djalma and Sri Mariamman Temple before getting a taxi to Wat Arun.
In between walking round the temple we sat and sweated in any shade we could find. The temple was beautiful, covered in crockery and china used as ballast in Chinese ships.
In an effort to cool off we decided to take a long tail boat tour around Thonburi and area full of canals. Having found a boat and settled on a good price we climbed and set off our Captain happily shouting down his phone most of the way, he steered us round the backwaters past old dilapidated wooden buildings and beautiful balconies with baskets of orchids hanging from them.
It was lovely and Mum loved it, wearing her new hat to keep off the sun. At the end of our hour trip we were dropped off in the Chao Phraya and we got the Express Boat the rest of the way to a riverside restaurant where we met back up with Djalma and ate snacks and drank beer watching the lightening in the distance. A beautiful day and lovely end to Mum’s trip.
The next morning Djalma went to work and I took Mum to the airport, unfortunately for me, the runs struck and I ran madly around the airport looking for a toilet, I was so desperate that I queue jumped for the first time in my life. We kept our goodbyes short and sweet although I did feel rather choked up as I waved her goodbye.
As for the rest of our time in Bangkok? Djalma and I didn’t do any of the sightseeing we had planned, but, I did get my hair cut, we went to the Brazilian Embassy Independence Day party among other things. Most importantly we started planning and preparing for life on the road again. Lovely.
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