Time Travel to Bangkok ~ a new model wife?
Time travel forward to 2014 New Year’s Day to another
universe via United Airlines from Seattle via San Francisco (via Los Angeles) and
Tokyo to our first destination Bangkok. After 21 hours arriving at midnight we are welcomed at the Peninsula
Bangkok Hotel. This beautiful hotel sits on the Chao Phraya River and our room on
the 32nd floor looks out over the river and a city of skyscrapers,
temples, palaces and some discontented anti-government protestors.
Jet lag and travel excitement means we are up at 5 am
(although truth is we often get up at that time at home) and we are the first
guests at the hotel’s river terrace for breakfast. This meal looks more like a dinner
buffet to me consisting of an array of Thai, Indian and Chinese dishes as well
as typical American food. How does
one decide what to eat? We start with papaya and mango fruit sprinkled with
lime and I am sure this is the best mango I’ve ever tasted and quickly become
addicted going back for a third helping.
John of course heads for the fish curry, sticky rice, stir fry
vegetables, noodles, chicken, miso soup and chana while I focus on French
bread, butter, cheese and granola. I wait for John to make his usual comment
about why I should eat the local food, and sure enough he says, “where can one
get Thai food as good as this? If you ever are going to eat it, this is the
place”.
Bhats and the Biggest
Chatuchat Weekend Market
We head out early while it is still cool and we believe we
will be ahead of other tourists searching for what is said to be the world’s
largest and baddest market in the world.
We take the Sky train managing after several failed attempt to buy
tickets with the correct amount of bhat and soon realize other tourists have exactly
the same idea. We get to the crowded
and narrow sauna-like market and John settles in for a double expresso while I
begin to explore. Immediately I realize I could be lost here forever. This
place is a gigantic maze of never ending mazes and commercial enterprises. I cannot determine landmarks because
there are hundreds of barrios containing Nike shoes, used blue jeans, white
Ralph Lauren shirts, watches, jewelry, Buddha statues with Thai music or Beatles
CDs blazing, lacquer ware, purses, antiques and anything you could ever want.
Having
no sense of direction I try the strategy of going down one pathway for what
seems like half a mile and turn around to return via the next pathway thinking pathways
will be symmetrical. I realize that if I get lost I do not have an I-phone to
call him and will not be able to find John. What will I do? Why didn’t I have a
back up plan?
I stop by a small shop with two pretty young Thai girls
putting up colored shirts similar to ones they are wearing. I try one on and in
my usual in decisive way wonder if a woman my age could wear this. There
doesn’t appear to be any pressure in this market by any of the vendors to buy things,
which is delightfully refreshing after the Istanbul market. I meet a woman my
age from Fiji Island who is also trying to decide whether to buy one. Her
husband comes along saying, “its only ten dollars --buy it! It looks terrific.”
He tells me he can’t believe I have found this market on my first day in
Bangkok because he has been in Thailand10 days and these are the best prices anywhere.
I buy one of the shirts but don’t bargain,
as $10 seems too cheap already. Hmm. I wonder if I am calculating the prices of
bhats correctly ~ 300 bhats equals
10 dollars (30 to 1)? How much have I given the sweet girl
vendor? I turn around and return
to John who I fear may be starting to get worried that I could be lost. I tell
him about the Fiji couple I met and their comment about the market. He replies,
“of course you would come here first, you
have a great tour director who does his research.”
Thai Massage ~ We
travel deeper into the maze of narrow alleys and John stops to bargain for a
Lauren t-shirt just like the one he is wearing. a quarter the price of such
shirts in US. Are these knock
offs? I am guessing everything here is a copy.. the Mephisto shoes are only $10
and look pretty authentic. Next to the men’s shirt store we discover a massage
parlor and John decides this is the next best way to spend his time while I
shop. He agrees to a massage asking for a head and shoulders massage which ends
up being a full massage (fully clothed) that lasts 90 minutes. The Thai woman giving him the massage
starts by sitting on first his legs and then walks on his back digging her
elbows in. I watch and wonder if
this will be deep enough for John or will result in another herniated disk? I
head out for a bit more shopping.
I am feeling a bit more confident of not getting lost and
tell myself everyone will know where the massage parlor is if I do get lost. I
find myself in the animal shopping section of the market. Here they have dogs,
kittens, snakes and clothing barrios just for animals. I look at cute baby bunnies
dressed in designer clothes and start to take a picture because I think I may
be hallucinating. I am told photographing is not allowed. Having been distracted by these
amazingly dressed animals I realize I have become lost. I try to retrace my
steps but don’t recognize anything. I stop to ask several people where the
massage parlor is and they respond with blank stares not understanding what I
am saying. Panic sets in… I ask some others where the massage place is using
sign language and massaging my own shoulders to demonstrate the word “massage”.
I implore, “ My husband is in there I have to find him” and they smile at me
and say yes. Suddenly I see
the Ralph Lauren barrio and know I am saved. I arrive there finding John is still under pressure from the
probably untrained masseuse. Seeing me they invite me to sit down and bring me
tea. I decide to stay put and read my book on George Orwell in Bhutan. John pays the equivalent of $20 for this
massage and feels he has more than gotten him money’s worth as massages at the Peninsula
hotel start at over $100. He
always likes a bargain.
At the periphery of this market are food stalls, which in
themselves are amazing efforts of how to squeeze everything including the kitchen,
cooking, and cleaning up as well as customer seating into a space the size of a
largish closet. We stop for some Thai food at one of these tables. After eating
we pass the tables to see where the cook is making the food while another person
sitting on the floor is washing the dishes by hand in what may or may not be
clean water? Our first test of how
good our gut flora will be!
Jim Thompson’s House
This American CIA agent who came to Bangkok was successful
at developing a business exporting Thai silk. He retired to Bangkok and built
his home out of 6 traditional homes constructed together. We took this tour of his home and
learned more about Jim Thompson’s architectural changes of Thai style than
about Thai architecture itself. His beautiful home is currently a museum of
beautiful Chinese porcelain using Thai designs. We learn later that one of our friends on the Burma tour,
Avis Bohlen, had been a guest there when "Jimmie Thomson" was alive and
well. He later disappeared under
mysterious circumstances in Malaysia.
Returning home mid afternoon for a nap before heading into
town for dinner we find the place where we bought our Vashon cutlery on our
last visit. John buys a few more knives.
The vendor warns him not to take these knives home in his carry on
luggage. Next we find a local restaurant chain called Ices and sit on the busy
street where cars, trucks, and taxis amass making it difficult for people to
cross the street. John orders a
bass fish dish for dinner that comes in its entirety with whiskers and mouth
and looks huge. It has taken so long to be steamed that we have had time to
watch a rat run back and forth under our table to the place where they are
cooking the food. Good enough for rats. John thinks it is very tasty!
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