Today is our Siam Winery tour, the floating vineyards an hour or so outside of Bangkok. The driver is supposed to pick us up at 8:30, so we are up and ready to go early as usual. Breakfast – rice salad with pineapple juice – hit the ATM and we’re good to go. Unfortunately, the driver wasn’t. Never showed. Bummer! After waiting for him for about 45 minutes – we decided to just forget about the whole thing and do more sightseeing around Bangkok instead. We also decided to ship a bunch of stuff home so we wouldn’t be overweight on the BA flight to London. So now we had time to do that.
Tracked down the Post Office, bought a box for $1 US, stuffed it with clothes and our Sea View restaurant pictures, crossed our fingers and mailed it off! We’ll see if it shows up! We then struck out for Wat Pho – home to the reclining Buddha. Traditional Thai massage was also first taught here, and Wat Pho is considered the 
University of massage. Took the ferry boat, and walked through the market with the tut tut touts. Found the entrance to Wat Pho without a problem, no need to dress “appropriately” here, so we have on our shorts with no need to “borrow” clothing. The reclining Buddha is 
amazingly large – and amazingly golden! Seeing pictures just doesn’t do it justice. The thing towers over you – and it’s lying down! The entire Buddah is nearly 150 feet long and 50 feet high. The rest of the temple that 
houses the Buddha is beautiful, again with the ornate ceramic tiles and gold leaf. It’s just wild to wander around these places – and to know that there are hundreds, if not thousands, all across the city!
It’s hot, and it’s about noon, so we decide we’ll take a break and head back to the Rubar Roon café (our rainstorm shelter from two days before) for some snacks. It’s a cute little place with decent food and not terribly expensive, considering it’s location. We ordered a Pork omelet and spring rolls with a couple of beers. All 
excellent – and just right for a snack/lunch. The restaurant used to be an old pharmacy, and they have left the glass doors up on the cabinets against the walls. Now they display crafts and gifts. It’s really a cute little place – made even cuter by the bathroom rhetoric posted on the wall:
A story about a little boy who loses his temper. His father gives him a bag full of nails and tells him to pound a nail in the fence post every time he loses his temper. The first day the boy loses his temper 12 times and pounds in 12 nails. It’s hard work, and little by little the boy controls his temper until tone day he proudly reports to his father that he hasn’t lost his temper all day. The father tells the boy to start taking one nail out for every day he controls his temper. After a while the boy reports to his father that all the nails have been removed. The father promptly takes the boy to the fence and shows him the nail holes, tells the boy he is proud of him, but the boy must always remember that the nails have left scars on the wood that will never heal – and that is what his angry words will do as well. What is said in anger will remain like a scar, it is like sticking a knife into someone. You can say you are sorry, but the wound will still remain.
Great story to think about and remember time and time again!
So after our food and fable, we head back to the ferry boat, on the way stopping to get fried bananas! 10b (about 30 cents US) for 4 bananas. There were two types so we tried them both. Great dessert! One I’m looking for again! Hopped the ferry to Central Pier where we picked up the skytrain to Pat Pong – the red light district. It’s broad daylight, so we don’t expect a lot of action, but we want to see it at least.
As we had expected, there isn’t anything going on in the two short streets that run off of major avenues. But there are lots of bars and signs advertising the main draw of the area! It’s sleazy – a lot more sleazy than I was expecting for some reason. Glad we came here during the day though, I think I would have been freaked out at night with all the touts and hustlers out trying to get you in the doors! We kind of wander around, look at the map and decide to try to find Jim Thompson’s house (he was a US businessman who came to Bangkok, loved it and moved here – then mysteriously disappeared in 1967 in the Congo or somewhere like that). Well, we didn’t find it – we found the factory store, but not the house. Turns out the house is way far away – and it’s still nasty hot and humid – so we gave up the ghost – hit the skytrain, the ferry and headed back to our side of town.
Bangkok is a city of contrasts. We’re living in the Old City – where the buildings aren’t more than 4 or 5 stories tall and it’s the old way of life. Down in the Pat Pong area and the hotel zone – it’s a different world. Except for the seediness of the red light district, the rest of the area are glass and chrome high rises, with busy, crazy bustling streets. Malls, shops, bars, restaurants, parks and green areas, too, but it’s a wholly different environment than what we are experiencing on our side of town.
Decided to explore Khao San a little more, so we got off at that stop and just followed the crowds! Wandered the back streets and have to say it’s a charming little area if you like backpackers and never seeing a Thai person except for the owners of the bars and shops! It’s definitely tourist central. Not that that’s a bad thing – it’s kind of fun! All the bars show American movies, so you can pick the bar by the movie schedule. We ended up stopping at O’ Hungry for fried cashews, chicken satays and beers, while watching The Beach. Not so great a movie, but really fun atmosphere!
Walked home from Khao San checking out the little local restaurants and bars on the way. Laid on the bed under the a/c at the hotel to cool off – then decided to go to the In Love restaurant, which is right on the river at the ferry dock. It has 2 levels, the upstairs open air and overlooking the Rama V bridge, which is lit up nicely at night. What a great night! It cooled down a bit, and there was a little breeze, plus there was a storm across the river so we got to watch our own lightening show. There was a 
band playing some great jazzy kind of tunes, plus a combination of American and Thai songs – including an Elvis song in Thai! Couldn’t put our finger on exactly which song, but it was definitely Elvis!
Fantastic atmosphere – and best of all….they had white wine….good white wine! Although it cost more than our food, I decided to go for it and have wine for the first time off the ship! Isn’t that amazing? It’s just not popular here – at least not in the little places we’ve been frequenting. We had Hot & Spicy soup with seafood which I couldn’t eat – no way! It was that spicy! Then we had a couple of small plates – one deep fried sun dried pork – which were crispy little pork fingerlings – and fried chicken with lemongrass. Ed is in 7th heaven! I’m not far behind! We stretch out our drinks as long as possible, and then reluctantly make our way back to the hotel. What a wonderful day, evening, trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment