That's it my birthday is over. I had my piece of cake, a Queen's cake, sort of "gateau a etages" with cashew nuts. Not bad! Sam had a lemon cake. It was a cake shop by the river Chao Praya. Sam noticed my startegy... I always say my birthday is not over until I have cake... To tell the truth, we were always too full to have desert so that's why my birthday was extended for 3 days this year.
We arrived in Bangkok on the 16th, left beautiful Tonsai at 9 or 9:30, my friend Kokai gave me a nice shirt. She gives great massages at the coffee shop at the Sea of Love in Tonsai. She also works at the coffee shop and her husband, Ozzy, does Batik in a little annex to the coffee shop/bar. That's where we ate every day, food was very good and everybody was friendly so we kept going! Anyways, we left Tonsai after a last breakfast and it was an easy trip to Bangkok. Because it is low season, we did not have to buy our plane ticket in advance or book a hotel, etc. We just showed up and we did not have to wait, it was super smooth. We used the express bus from the airport, and it dropped us in crazy, busy and noisy Kao San Road. We tried to walk away a bit to find a quieter road for a quieter hotel but it happens that at night, our road becomes quite noisy as well with loud music and tourists partying. We had our earplugs and managed to sleep! Before going to sleep, we walk around, ate some food on the streets and discovered a "roti" restaurant offering a kind of food that we did not have yet in Thailand. Sort of little pancakes with great curries.
On the 17th, we woke up early to visit temples and Grand Palace. We had a veritable latte, at Ricky's coffee shop, it was as good as the ones we get at Re-Entry on Main street. Read the Bangkok Post, and actually enjoyed it very much. We first visited a wat near the Grand Palace, the one with the emerald buddha. From the Grand Palace, I loved the mural depicting the Ramakien story. I also liked the precious objects exhibition, betel nut sets for the king and queen, all decorated very finely, strange rings with nine different stones, crowns, etc. We then walked to the reclining Buddha. Gigantic statue, I liked the sounds of coins falling in a series of metal bowls, a sort of offering one can make by putting one coin per bowl. Then we met Tamsin on the way to Wat Arun. Actually it was not the first climber we had met on our way, we saw a few familiar faces we had met in Tonsai. Tourists all have the same gidebooks so we end up at the same places... It was great to meet Tamsin, we decided to continue our visit in Bankok together. Wat Arun was great, you can climb up and see far away. We finished our walk by visiting a small market and got some mangostines, my favorite fruit. We had dinner at a stall. Then back to our hotel briefly and up to Muy Tai! I was not sure to like it but I did! The fighters were fabulous athletes, it was not aggressive, the competitors where respectful towards each others and concentrated. They even perform a small dance before the fight. We saw about 4 fights. The stadium was not full but enough to have lots of ambiance. We were lucky enough to meet a Thai guy who told us the rules of the games and explained the hand gestures the crowd was making, a betting sign language! We took a tuk-tuk on the way there and back, we should have taken a meter taxi, it would have been cheaper. You have to negotiate a fixed price with the tuk-tuk drivers and we were not so good at it. Oh well, it ended-up being less than 3.50 $ there and back... We are cheap!
Today, we met with Tamsin at a coffee shop near her place, then changed a few american dollars into bahts and off to Ricky's coffee house again. I had a great papaya lassi... hummmmm. We walked to the pier and took a boat on the Chap Phraya in the direction of China Town. We then walked about in it, checking out all kind of cheap merchandise, stuff that for the most part you don't want but end up keeping around anyway... And sorry, we don't even have pictures because that's where the batteries died... We were good, we did not buy stuff. We had lunch in a great dim sum place. We then took a taxi to Jim Thompson's house where we spent the afternoon. We had a great guide. At the end of the official tour, she answered our many questions about the paintings and the story of buddha. Jim Thompson was an architect, and after being in the army stationed in Thailand he revived weaving and silk printing in Thailand. His house is a mix of traditional and non-traditional architecture, with lots of beautiful pieces of collection, like a walking buddha, amazing tables and scuptures, etc... We then watched a movie about silk weaving. Then, we took another boat, in a smaller canal, more polluted. We walked in small streets to the area where we live in, ate at the roti shop again, watched a group of people doing some aerobic boot camp in a tiny park by the river and figured that the watching might have helped to create a bit of an appetite for a cake...
We leave tomorrow at 8:10 in the morning, that means we have to wake up at 4:15. I should really get up now and start packing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment