January 29-February 2, Bangkok

On Monday night we boarded a Bangkok bound bus in Surrattani. This was no ordinary bus but a bright pink double decker that blasted Thai music almost non-stop. I surprised to see that we were the only backpackers, the only white people actually, to be taking the overnight bus to Bangkok from Surrattani. The ride wasn't so great, but you can't expect much for a 10 hour ride that costs $18. The only time that Thai music wasn't blaring occurred during the showing of the Keanu Reeves flick Point Break...just kidding, we weren't so lucky. We got to watch his newer release, Constantine, in Thai. The double decker proved to be really bouncy and I didn't catch many winks during the ride. Even worse, I was sitting in the front row and was able to anxiously watch how dangerously the bus was barreling down the road. Probably the best part of the evening was dinner: a taro filled bun and Magnum ice cream bar at the Surrattani station and then a mung bean filled bun on the bus. Yum yum.

We pulled into the Bangkok bus terminal at 4:00 am on Tuesday, an hour ahead of schedule. Lindsay had been sleeping in the back row and hadn't been privy to the racecar-like driving, lucky girl. We hired a taxi to take us to our hotel, the Novotel (thanks Dad!), checked-in at 5:00 am and immediately fell asleep in our dark, comfortable room. So perfect. We woke up around noon, and strolled down to the Jim Thompson House for lunch and a tour. I enjoyed very tasty (and spicy!) chili shrimp with white rice. Jim Thompson was an American entreapneur that settled in Bangkok after WWII. He founded the Jim Thompson Thai Silk Company and ultimately rebuilt the Thai silk industry, in turn introducing the Western world to Thai silk products (his silk clothing was featured in the 60's film version of The King and I). Thompson had been an architect in the US and designed himself a beautiful Thai-style house along one of Bangkok's canal (Thai houses are built like compounds: the dining room in one little house, the sitting room in another, etc). Thompson was also an avid collector of antiques--we were able to examine ancient Chinese porcelain and 8th century buddhas, among other artifacts. In case you are wondering, Jim Thompson mysteriously disappeared on a trip to Cameron Highlands, Malaysia (we went there!) in 1967, his body was never recovered.

That night Lindsay and I met our friend Jon (we were introduced to him one night in Khao Sok) for dinner at Pachino's, an Italian restaurant close to our hotel. We all ate good food that was reminiscent of Carraba's-quality dining or something similar. After dinner Linds and I said goodnight to Jon, and headed to one of the 5 huge cineplexes to watch a film. We decided on Eastern Promises, which I really loved! The viewing experience began with about 30 minutes of commercials and previews (not surprising) and then we stood with our fellow Thai patrons to watch the "We Love the King" montage video (played with the King's anthem in the background). The Thais apparently really love King Bhumibol. After the video we were seated; our violent film began and was enjoyed by all.

On Wednesday morning I got up early to work out in the hotel's fitness room. That felt great! After a mediocre breakfast in the hotel, Linds and I headed to the Vietnamese embassy to acquire visas for our trip in a few weeks time. When we left the hotel it was pretty much monsooning. We rode the sky train a few stops and then walked several blocks to the embassy. Despite our raincoats and umbrellas, we were pretty much soaked by the time we arrived. We applied for our visas, and upon leaving the building discovered that the building's entranceway was completely flooded as were all of the surrounding streets. It was really ridiculous, it had only rained for about an hour! Lindsay and I walked reluctantly through the murky, ankle-deep water to the sidewalk. I was standing close to the wall that lined the embassy when Linds told me to step forward because a cockroach was crawling towards me on the wall. I turned around to see it and realized that the wall was covered in huge roaches, it was so gross! I'm talking at least 30 huge, monster roaches! We screamed like little girls and ran to the curb to hail a taxi to return us to our lovely, cockroach-free hotel.

Lindsay changed out of her wet sneakers and then we decided that the time had come for her to purchase a pair of shoes that could be worn while walking in rain (she only had sneakers and flimsy flip-flops). We spent the next THREE HOURS shopping at Bangkok's various malls, finally settling on a pair of hideously colored Puma watershoes. After shopping I picked up a sandwich at a deli in our hotel, and then reclined and swam in the pool for a while. After the r&r we headed to one of Bangkok's Thai boxing stadiums. The stadium wasn't very crowded, we chose to sit on the side with the smallest number of smelly old Thai men. There were a few woman there as well as a number of 8-11 year olds selling beers and alcoholic drinks. We watched five matches, all between men that weighed less than 130 lbs. Probably the part I enjoyed most was the intense drumming that was played during each round. The rest of it (punches, high kicks, and hugging kicks to the opponent's kidneys...I'm not sure how to describe the moves) I didn't find too enthralling. What I found interesting was that the crowd always obviously (and unanimously) chose a favorite between the two contenders--interpreting the unfamiliar boos and cheers was fun. Lindsay and I rounded off the night with a late sushi dinner in the Siam Paragon, one of the fancy malls close to the hotel.

On Thursday morning we headed to The Grand Palace, Bangkok's landmark attraction (and rightfully so!). Along with many other tourists, Linds and I walked around the Palace for several hours taking hundreds of photos. The intricate and ornately styled buildings and temples were really breathtaking, especially when glistening in the morning sunlight. In addition to gold, emerald and blue colored tiles and ceilings, there were also extremely detailed murals on the walls of passageways outlining Buddhist lore. One of the main attractions is the Emerald Buddha, which is actually not carved of emerald but of jade instead. The buddha was dressed in his winter wardrobe, a cloak woven in gold.

Once the afternoon sun was in full swing we hired our first tuk-tuk to drive us to Khao San Road. For lunch we chose a crappy Irish pub and I sampled a dissatisfying Thai-style papaya salad with black crab. Not good. We then hired a taxi to take us to Viamanmek Mansion, a royal residence built by Rama V in the early 20th century. The mansion was built of golden teak (an indigenous tree specie) in Western architectural style. The rooms were filled with antiques that showcased the modernity of the palace at the time it was constructed, for example the king's bathroom contained the first shower in Thailand. We really enjoyed the tour, especially since it was led by a friendly Thai woman with a jiggling snaggle-tooth.

We had a low-key night eating more Italian food at Pachino's. We celebrated my acceptance at UCSB with some wine and then I purchased the latest Harry Potter flick (at an obscene cost) once we were back at the Novotel. Of course once the film began, I remembered that I had watched it on the plane from Australia to Singapore, oops.

On Saturday morning we drove back over to the Vietnamese embassy to pick up our visas and then headed to the Hualampong train station. We purchased tickets for the next evening's sleeper train to Chiang Mai and booked accommodation as well. After our bookings, we hired a taxi to transfer us to Wat Pho, the oldest temple in Bangkok. Before touring the temple grounds, we ate some really foul, greasy noodles at a restaurant on the pier. To get to the restaurant you had to walk through a market selling really smelly dried fish. I'm not usually very sensitive to smells, but the whiff of the market made me feel physically ill. I saved myself from vomiting by purchasing a coconut and focusing all of my attention on it's sweet water while I ran to the pier restaurant. We spent an hour walking around Wat Pho looking at the many large golden buddhas and at the famous Reclining Buddha. The temple was under renovation so there were large heaps of brightly colored roof tiles all over the grounds. It wasn't very attractive but I thought it was interesting.

We then took a boat across the unattractive Chao Phraya River to Wat Arun. This temple was very tall--steep stairs allowed us to climb up to a second landing that was a couple hundred feet in the air. We were awarded panoramic views of the city and up-close views of the Buddhist architecture. My favorite ornaments were these squatted lions that support columns. I enjoy visiting the temples but wish I knew more about Buddhism and it's corresponding architectural style, there's a lot of symbolism, etc that I'm missing out on.

We then returned to the Siam Paragon for a light, late lunch and some book shopping. After a gym session we went back to the Paragon for another sushi dinner. This time I ordered a special box set that contained 4 pieces of sushi, miso soup, noodles, a cold tofu thing and pickled veggies. It was so great! Lindsay was itching to explore Bangkok's salsa scene and so we headed to a club called La Rueda that she found online. It was indeed a salsa club; however, there was only one couple dancing and the only person seated at the bar was an old, obese, arrogant Swiss man. The friendly waitresses informed us that Thursday and Saturday were the prime nights for dancing. Bummer. We were forced into talking about politics with the annoying Swiss man while we finished our drinks and then took a cab back to our hotel. Before retiring to our room, we checked out the scene at the Novotel's bar and club. The music was so bad and the crowd of old Western men hitting on young Thai women was too much to take, so we just gave up on dancing and went to bed.

On Saturday morning we checked-out of our room, left our bags with the concierge and headed to the weekend market. We got a little lost of the train but eventually wound our way to the massive market containing 8000 vendor stalls! Initially I wasn't very excited about the trip to to the market but once I started weaving through the stalls, I really got into it. Lindsay and I set a meeting place and time and shopped our separate ways. I found some really great gifts! The market contained everything from trinkets and knickknacks to clothes to rabbits and puppies (and even more of that foul smelling dried fish). After a while I found Lindsay looking deflated at our meeting spot and so we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and continue on to the station to board our sleeper train to Chiang Mai....