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.

Jim Thompson's

roof tops, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

After the Christmas holiday, the rest of the week kind of passed by in a blur. We went out with another real estate agent to look at some other places. We knew that we liked the townhouse that we had seen the previous week, but we wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything better out there. Our agent was very nice and gave us some great tips on restaurants and a Japanese market, but we didn’t see anything that we liked more than the townhouse. We contacted Nong and asked her to go ahead with negotiations on the townhouse. Renting here is almost like buying in the US, the price is always negotiated, as are any requests (like we asked to have the shower heads moved up). We are getting close, but everyone is on holiday now. We had some surprisingly good dinners at some of the malls. Good Vietnamese at the Food Loft at Central Chidlom (that left both of us hurting from the chili sauce), delicious Mediterranean at the Emporium, and tasty chicken katsu and noodles at the Siam Paragon. I rode the Skytrain to our (potentially) new station to time how long it takes from D’s office. Takes about 25 minutes, not bad, but longer than the 10-minute walk she has now. I stopped at Central World to pursue the bookstore and marveled at their excellent selection of art and design books.

Today we were planning a visit to the boys, hoping that we could give them a bath. Our last visit had been hot and stinky and the boys felt so gross (they are shedding like crazy). It had left me feeling a little depressed, and ready to spring them from the kennel. D had also expressed interest in going to Chinatown or Jim Thompson’s House. (Jim Thompson was an ex-CIA and architect who fell in love with Thailand, decided to stay, and single-handedly brought back the Thai silk industry. His house is several traditional Thai houses put together and now a museum. He went for a walk in the mountains in Malaysia and was never seen again.) We decided to save Chinatown for tomorrow and hit Jim Thompson’s on the way to see the boys, since we get a little dirty and covered in hair visiting them. It was a short walk from the Skytrain, and easy to find. Just follow the other tourists! I had read that it was a 100 baht entry fee. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we would walk around the grounds without paying, and it was the only area we were allowed to take photos. Both D and I decided that we weren’t up for touring the museum (knowing that we would be back with some of our out-of-town visitors), and decided to have lunch at the café there. The lunch was good and not overpriced. I had a delicious salad with Larb. Nice and spicy, with great flavors of lime and Thai basil. A Thai iced tea completed the meal. Yum!

We hopped back on Skytrain and headed to see the boys. We inquired about giving them a bath, which the staff agreed to (with only a few odd looks, I think they are getting used to the weird Americans). They provided us with soap, sponges and a few towels. The boys were brought out one at a time, and after some initial freak-out from both of them, they settled down and each took the bath rather well. We stayed and played and lavished them with attention after bath time. I think they felt better. They were both bouncing around and wrestling with each other, just being themselves. I felt a lot better after this visit, especially knowing that it won’t be much longer before we are all together again.

For dinner, we headed over to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar, but decided to avoid the main food area after our not-so-great experience of last time. We took a taxi over from our hotel, neither of us up for the mad dash across the road. D said that there were 3 food areas (this place is huge). We found one of the food areas that is on one of the edges and walked up and down the stalls checking out the assortment of offerings. We were obviously off the beaten track a little, since we were two of only a few farang there. We each got a stir-fried chicken and noodle dish (mine was “spicy”, D’s was “soy sauce”) with a little help from another customer since the people operating the stall did not understand English. Our meal was rounded out with a Chang beer for D and a Heineken for me. Meal grand total=160 baht (around $4.50) Add in the ambiance of sitting in parking lot with Thai rock music in the background and it was a nice end to the day.

Christmas Lunch

scary lobby, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

Christmas Day! We spent the morning chatting with family (with some technical issues). D had suggested that we have a Christmas lunch at one of the hotels in Bangkok, since we were away from family and without a real kitchen to make our own. There had been many, many articles in the newspapers about Christmas buffets and dinners. D had expressed in the Grand Hyatt, which was having a huge buffet with fresh oysters, sashimi, turkey, ham and all the fixings. Since I do enjoy fresh oysters, I agreed. We weren’t sure where the hotel was exactly, so we inquired at the front desk. They so generously took us in the hotel van (again!). It turned out that we had passed it on our walk the other evening. Whoops! We made our way into the hotel, and up some stairs to the buffet.

We have discovered that Christmas is a big deal here, so it was no surprise to see the place full of over-the-top decorations, people dressed up in animal suits and a huge spread of food. We both splurged a got a glass of wine (wine is crazy expensive here, I’ve seen glasses for the same price as our entire meal, we went for the cheapest that was still quite good), and went to check out the offerings. Our plan was to try one of each of the different things, since there was so much to choose from and so we wouldn’t over do it. We started at the oyster and sashimi table, and each had a little sample of oysters and sushi. The oysters were good for being shipped in from somewhere and the sushi was tasty as well. After our seafood starter, we checked out the assortment of antipasti/pupus and salads. There were flavors from all around the globe: salamis, hummus, grilled peppers, tomato salads, seared tuna, and so much more. We each sampled a few of the different items. I liked the hummus and pita (with some tomatoes) and seared ahi the best. Great flavors and so fresh! We chatted and sipped our wine, taking in the spectacle of it all. Up next was the carving station, and the turkey. D had been looking forward to the turkey and brussel sprouts, part of the reason she had liked this place to begin with. We had to jockey for space at the carving station and mistakenly stood in line for the foie gras. Once we got in the correct line, we each got a slice of turkey and some brussel sprouts. I also had a few potatoes, while D had some stuffing. We had to ask if there was any cranberry sauce (since I had been shut out at Thanksgiving =) ) and ended up with some that had a ketchup like consistency and tasted like it had been made with dried cranberries. It wasn’t bad, just different. It wouldn’t make me forget mom’s homemade cranberry sauce anytime soon, though.

While we were enjoying our turkey, it was time for some “entertainment.” The entertainment was a group of kids dressed up in various costumes singing Christmas carols (in English) and dancing around. It was kind of cute, in a bizarre way, since they didn’t know all the words and it seemed a little forced. The strangest part was the apparent “ring leader,” a young woman dressed in a black skirt, red t-shirt, strange boots, and (the oddest part) a black cape. She was singing loudly and bouncing around, encouraging the kids to sing. By the end of the performance, D and I were really wishing that the piano/violin/bass ensemble would start up again, and soon. We ordered some coffee, and went to check out the dessert offerings. Again, they had items from all over with a bit more focus on what I would consider European offerings. Lots of tart and cake-like things, some real fruitcake, a Buche de Noel, and lots of chocolate items. D was stoked, and had a small sampling of the chocolate desserts. I had a raspberry macaron and a piece of pecan pie/tart. Both were tasty and festive. We left with happy tummies and a bit more Christmas spirit.

Adventure Part II - Floating Market

IMG_3220.JPG, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

Our day started early. The tour group was picking us up at the hotel at 6:30. D and I were ready after scarfing down a quick breakfast at the hotel. They ended up picking us up 10 minutes late, as we lamented that we could have had another cup of coffee. Oh well… After switching to a large tour bus, we hit the road. The city was still waking up, the streets nearly empty as we approached the Chao Praya River. It was a pretty cool sight to have my first view of the river as the sun was rising. Beauty I couldn’t capture through our bus window. Our guide had informed us that our first stop would be at a palm sugar factory. I was immediately skeptical of our tour, since I had read in our various guidebooks about all these scams where drivers take you off to places where they receive commission. It ended up being pretty interesting. Apparently they cut the bottom off the blossoms and gather the nectar, then boil it down to make the sugar. It certainly appealed to the foodie part of me, and the skeptic faded a bit.

After another hour or so on the road, we arrived at the boat dock where we were picked up by a few longtail speedboats that would take us to the floating market. It was a fun (and tippy) ride through the canals, and an interesting look at peoples lives on the canals. The houses bump right onto the water, and people were out sitting and taking care of chores. A few waved at our boats as we cruised by. Finally we arrived at the floating market. Stalls line the canal selling fruit, veggies, noodles, soup, all sorts of handicrafts, and tons of other things. Within the canal are flat bottom canoes filled with vendors selling fruit and all sorts of food, and other crafts. It was pretty amazing to see the food being prepared, many on hot plates, or boiling big pots of water on these little canoes. So crazy! Some of the canoes (with driver, mainly women) are available for rent at 150 baht per 30 minutes. D and I watched other tourists climb in the boats and promptly paddle into a traffic jam of boats. We decided that it wasn’t worth the expense and were content to walk around the market instead. I had my first taste of mangosteen (which was delicious! Sweet and tangy) and we shared a classic Thai dessert of mango and sticky rice. After about an hour and a half at the market, it was time to head back to the bus. We were off to a teak furniture factory, where we watched craftsmen and woman make these amazing carvings. Another hour on the bus to our next stop, Thailand’s largest pagoda called Wat Phra Pathom Chedi in Nakhon Pathom. It was huge! D and I walked around for a little while, admiring the grounds and trying to be respectful of the worshippers. Back to the bus and on to a resort/park called the Rose Garden. After our buffet lunch (it was decent), D and I wandered around the grounds admiring the gardens and orchid plantings. The Rose Garden is along the Ta Chine River, and D and I found a spot to sit and look out across the river and marvel at the fact that we are in Thailand.

Our guide told us that the “cultural show” was at 2:45, and an “elephant show” was at 2:15. D is a huge fan of elephants and has been eager to see some live and in person, so we headed over to see them. It was amazing to see them up close. We were both very moved and saddened by seeing them in captivity. They really are beautiful and amazing creatures. You could pay 50 baht to ride them for about 5 minutes or 20 baht to feed them some bananas. 20 baht also enabled you to have your picture taken with them, and after some gentle prodding from me, D agreed and I snapped a few shots of her with one of the elephants. Her smile was so big! We headed over to the auditorium to watch the cultural show, which was interesting and a bit confusing. I think they tried to pack too much into one show. It was back to the bus and another hour before we were back in Bangkok. We headed to a Thai restaurant down the street for a delicious and spicy Christmas Eve dinner.

More pics from our trip here:
Floating Market

The Adventure Weekend - Part I

spotted dog, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

*Posting will be slow for a little while. The earthquake that hit Taiwan this week, damaged some of the regions communication lines (mainly internet). The internet has slowed to a crawl. It's like we're back in the days of dial-up.

This weekend we were both feeling that it was time to be a bit more adventurous. Both D and I were curious about the Floating Markets that we had heard so much about. We checked out our various travel books and looked at maps, but nothing seemed to be in Bangkok. Since we are in a hotel with a very nice and very helpful staff, D suggested we ask the desk about a guided tour. Neither one of us are particularly good “tourists”, we typically shun any sort of tour or tourist activity. We had decided on Friday that we would go on Saturday morning to visit the boys, since we hadn’t seen them all week. We were both missing them terribly. Prior to our departure to the kennel, we checked with the hotel desk regarding tours and they handed us a brochure chock full of different trips. Many of them looked interesting, but we settled on one that took us to the Damnern Saduak Floating Market & Rose Garden. The Floating Market is around 110 kilometers (70 or so miles) from Bangkok. Both D and I were excited at the prospect of getting out of the city for a bit, since I have never been anywhere else in Thailand and D has only been to Phuket. The trip started early in the morning, so the hotel staff arranged for us to do the trip on Sunday, Christmas Eve. That left us with plenty of time on Saturday to visit the boys. It was so nice to see them, and they were so excited to us too. The spotted dog seems to be getting over his coolness towards me, but still was letting us know how displeased he is with the situation. We spent the afternoon dorking around and tackling our mountain of laundry. In the spirit of adventure, we decided to check out a new development not too far from our hotel. It was unfortunately not near any of the Skytrain stations, so we asked the (so helpful!) front desk if they knew where it was and if they could get us a taxi. They ended up taking us in the hotel’s van, that usually runs people to the Skytrain and Underground stations! So nice! We walked around the development (which felt very Western) for a little while and browsed the bookstore. We settled on having dinner at this combination Vietnamese and Chinese restaurant. Both D and I had thought the Vietnamese sounded good. We decided to share a banana blossom & chicken salad, D ordered lemongrass chicken with rice and I had a Ban Hoi, which is rice noodles, fresh lettuce, Thai basil (or mint) and choice of meat (I settled on beef). You get to mix up all the ingredients with a delicious sweet/vinegary sauce. So fresh and tasty, I could probably eat it every day. I ended up eating the banana blossom salad, which they had neglected to add on the menu that it had shrimp in it! After dinner, we walked around for a bit and then hopped in a taxi, and back to the hotel for an early bedtime. We had our big adventure tomorrow!

Slow Day

bubbles, originally uploaded by Dianthus.

Friday! The end of our first official week in Bangkok! And what did I do to mark this milestone? I stayed in the hotel for most of the day doodling and dorking around on the computer. It was one of those days where I am struggling with this new “freedom” that I have. I know, I know, such a thing to complain about.
After D returned from work, we decided to head over the shiny new Central World. It is another over-the-top mega-mall (I believe it is called a ‘lifestyle center’). It is so weird to think how much time we’ve spent in malls since we’ve been here. It is usually something we avoid so much at home. When in Rome…right? We had passed by it on our walk the night before and I had been reading about it in the paper. We were curious, so we hopped on Skytrain and walked the rest of the way on the elevated platform. It was just as crazy as we had imagined. The place is huge, and it is probably only 1/3rd full of stores. There will be a movie theater and bowling alley when the place is complete. We did manage to find (what will probably become a favorite of mine) a store called ‘B2S’, a bookstore and art supplies in one! Hooray! I will undoubtedly while away some afternoons here. We wandered around, getting boardline lost, hunting for a place to have dinner. D had seen a Vietnamese place on the directory, which sounded good. Once we found it, after much searching, we were disappointed. Not much that sounded good and waaay too many dishes with shrimp in it (shrimp=death for D, not good). We ended up at a noodle house. I had soya chicken in soup that was pretty good and D had gotten house-made tofu with this crazy herb-y coating served with peanut sauce that was tasty. After dinner, we walked the mall a bit more, witnessing some truly outlandish Christmas celebrations. Dancing trees, snowmen, and presents all to blaring holiday tunes. D and I decided we couldn’t take much more holiday cheer and headed back.

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.