House Hunt Part 3

sundown, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

D went off to work this morning after playing hooky the day before (sort of…since we were looking at places to live and all). We had asked Nong to see if there where any places in the same area as our hotel for rent. She managed to find an additional 2 places, so we arranged to meet up with her at 1:30. I puttered around our room for the morning. I’ve been trying to draw a little everyday to get better, so I spend some time blogging and doodling. I had planned on meeting D at her office for lunch, and then walking back to our hotel to meet Nong. Our hotel was doing “pest control” that day, so I ended up leaving for D’s office early and taking the long way. I’m always fascinated with streets; the activity (or lack of), the colors and lines of signs and telephone poles, the people. Bangkok streets are filled with endless fascination for me, especially at lunchtime with all the street vendors and patrons. It is one of the things I am coming to love about this city. Nowhere else that I have been in the world has streets like this.
I had turned down the street that D’s office is on, and I was in my own little world, taking in all the vendors and people when I saw a sign “(something) Margarita Bar.” I kept walking, thinking my burrito-deprived mind was playing tricks on me. I passed by the brightly colored windows and I thought to myself “no way, there is not Mexican food in Bangkok.” When I got to D’s office and told her about what I had seen, she said “let’s check it out for lunch.” We were both excited at the prospect of burritos and tacos. Prior to our departure we had lamented the fact that the one food we would not be able to find would be Mexican, one of our “go-to” foods for busy nights. We stepped into the restaurant with high hopes. We sat down at a table and cracked our menus. Eureka! Burritos and tacos in Bangkok! I ordered a burrito and D had tacos and we shared chips and salsa. The chips weren’t bad; the salsa obviously from a bottle, and the food wasn’t half bad. Some things were slightly unorthodox to our California palettes…who puts refried beans in a taco? But it was nice to know if we ever had a real strong urge for tacos, we knew where to go.
We ended up taking half of it back to our hotel as take-away in order to meet Nong. We went with her and saw the 2 new places (which weren’t going to work, too far from any public transportation to be realistic) and she took us to our 2 favorites from the day before. Both D and I liked both places just as much, but really realized that the 15th floor apartment (no matter how cool) wasn’t practical. There is just no real place for the boys, and the Soi that it is on is really busy with no place to even walk them. The townhouse has some downsides, but it is our front-runner at this point. We decided to do some walking around after seeing the apartment. It was the first time since we’ve arrived that I’ve seen some of the “scene” that Bangkok is infamous for. Lots of guys hanging around in bars, looking for something…. I was admittedly relieved that I wouldn’t be trying to walk the boys past that everyday. We ended up walking quite a way (and seeing some mega-over-the-top Christmas decorations) searching for something for dinner, but ended up back at our hotel and enjoying our leftover lunch.