Sunday, December 31, 2006

New Year's Eve


Signs, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

Today we decided to go explore Chinatown. On our bus ride to the floating market, our tour guide had told us that Bangkok’s Chinatown is the largest in the world. Coming from the Bay Area, we scoffed since we have heard that San Francisco’s is the largest (Were we in for a surprise!) D plotted our route out, starting at the China Gate and heading down one of the major (and picturesque according to our map) Sois. We walked a few blocks to the MRT, Bangkok’s underground subway. The MRT is just as nice as the Skytrain, clean and efficient! (Muni and BART could learn a few things from them!) We exited the train, climbed the stairs and were immediately approached by a woman who said she works with the Tourist Bureau, and could she help us and asked where we were going. We just smiled and said we were headed to Chinatown, and we were happy to walk. Now, she could have actually been with the Tourist Bureau and genuinely trying to help us. The unfortunate thing is that there are tons of scams with these sorts of things (especially being in a more tourist area) where people offer to help or tell you that the attraction you are going to is closed, and they would be happy to take you around the city stopping at places where they receive a kick-back. It happens with tuk tuks and taxis too. They will slow down or stop and ask if you need a ride. I’ve never been sharked by taxis so much in my life! Usually if they are doing it, you will pay dearly for it. (We had this happen on our way home from one of the malls recently. We climbed into a taxi, and didn’t notice that the driver didn’t turn on his meter. We were on our way before he started saying “ 150 baht.” At that point we were stuck and ended up paying 150 baht for a ride that should have been around 60 baht including tip.)

We headed out of the subway station, and began walking to the China Gate. The helpful “tour guide” and pointed in the general direction of where we wanted to go, and thanks to D’s excellent sense of direction we found it. It is a beautiful, ornate entry and an excellent portal to the lively chaos of Chinatown. We headed down Yaowarat into the heart of Chinatown. D had armed us with the extremely informative Nancy Chandler Map, were we had seen a street full of print shops for cards, calendars, etc… We zigzagged down the various sois and finally found the one we were looking for. All closed! Of course, we should have realized this seeing as how it was Sunday and New Years Eve to boot. It was interesting anyway. We weaved our way to one of the “picturesque” alleyways (called Troks). It was an experience! The trok was narrow, lined with shops (many were closed unfortunately) and rather empty. That is until we hit the area with the food. Tons of people crowded into this small little alley, stalls everywhere selling all kinds of stuff, and the odd motorcycle weaving through. We hit one of the major sois, and decided that we needed something to drink and a place to cool off. Chinatown was much bigger than we had expected! The crowds mixed with the heat can start to make a person a little grouchy. We found a 7-11 and grabbed some water. We kept wandering around until we found the Grand Princess hotel. We decided to check out their “rotating restaurant” atop the hotel. Everything was pretty pricy, so we settled on a few appetizers and a soda. The food was mediocre, but the view was spectacular. We could see most of Bangkok and the Chao Phraya River. Gorgeous!

During our lunch we discussed what our next move should be. We had talked about heading to Khao San Road (a popular backpacker area) for dinner and walking around, or heading back to the hotel to relax and then trying to find a place to go to celebrate the New Year. We had read about lots of high-end activities along the River, but not a lot of free or cheap things. We decided that Khao San Road sounded more fun, and we had been reading about an awesome and cheap vegetarian restaurant in the area. We headed towards the River, deciding to take a river taxi up to the Khao San area. Somehow we ended up on the tourist boat. I was like “of course, we’re on the tourist boat!” D just laughed. It was a very nice ride up the River, cool and a nice change from the hectic BKK traffic. The tourist boat has a guide talking about all the various sites along the River. She was talking so fast and so close to the microphone; I couldn’t understand most of it.
D had described Khao San Road to me as the “Haight of Bangkok.” This is a pretty fair approximation. The street was filled with lots of younger backpackers and travelers, some vaguely hippyish, with lots of bars and Pad Thai vendors along the street. We walked around, stopping a having a beer a one of the pubs to cool off. We found the vegetarian place, and decided that we were going to have dinner there a little later after checking out the menu. We visited one of the Wats nearby, and found another bar that had seating out on the sidewalk. D and I shared a jug of beer and watched all the colorful characters walk by. It was a lovely way to spend the early evening. We went and had a delicious meal at the vegetarian restaurant. We shared panang curry, a pumpkin dish, banana flower salad, and homemade tofu skewers (we were planning on leftovers). The restaurant isn’t much more than tables in an alley, and is very laid back. So much so that paying the bill was a little puzzling to us. Our server came over and said “60, 60, 60, 60” (for our 4 dishes) plus our 2 waters. Grand total was 270 baht. After dinner, we found a taxi and headed back to the hotel to watch episodes of ‘Lost’ and try to stay up to midnight.

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