As you learnt from my time visiting Sarah and Chuck in Chiang Mai, I don't do such a good job of touristing when I'm enjoying time with Sarah and Chuck.
I left Phnom Penh Saturday morning and flew to Suvarnabhumi Airport (it only took me about five years to figure out how to pronounce that name!) where I met Sarah and Chuck who had also flown in from Chiang Mai. We headed into Bangkok where we stayed in a most amazing AirBNB. For $80 a night, we had three bedrooms, 2.5 bath, and about 3,000 square feet of very attractive space in Silom. I didn't take photos of the apartment, but just in case you want to see, here's the link https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/10109234 and you can click on their pictures.
Bangkok always strikes me as a city of great contrasts. We were on the 10th floor of the building and this was the view from the porch.
We could also see this most interesting building that is still under construction. To me it looks like a rubiks cube! I'm not sure how I'd feel being in one of the spaces that jut out - I would need great faith in the engineers!
Off to the right, there was a little pagoda of sorts...........
...........and if one looked down a little from the porch, this just looked like a big mess! In general, that is my experience of Bangkok - a hodge podge of buildings that vary enormously in size, style and condition. It looks as if it has just grown like topsy with no forethought to zoning or city planning. Add to that erratic sidewalks - sometimes cluttered, sometimes not - and stinky canals and there you have Bangkok. Something for everyone!
I was ready for a rest and catch up time. I had a few errands to run - back to the old hotel to pick up my suitcase and off to MBK shopping mall to get a new, larger suitcase. So at least I got out and about on a few occasions.
I didn't catch this vendor completely - the sign got in the way! He's pulling his brooms etc with a bicycle.
The country is mourning the death of their beloved King Bhumibol The Great, who died in October 2016. His body remains in the Grand Palace until October this year, when he is to be cremated at a public square in Bangkok. In the meantime many Thais visit his body at the palace, (it's in a vault) and pictures of him are surrounded by black and white, like the one above which was outside a bank.
The Skytrain was scattered with signs like the ones above that endeavor to discourage people from overuse of cell phones. From the look of the passengers, I'd say they're not paying attention to the signs. I've found that the world over, people are on their phones when commuting. When I can peek at the screens, it's often a game. Sometime from the smiles, you know they're watching a cat video!
Our apartment was in a business district, so it was quiet during the weekend. On Monday it came alive with street vendors and was a hive of activity. I was fascinated by this batch of taro balls being prepared.
Their preparation took quite a lot of tossing in the air and rapid boiling in a big vat of oil.(Notice the funky little statues on the porch behind the vendor).
I wasn't the only person anxiously awaiting for the cooking to finish. The result was a hollow ball of slightly sweet, semi crunchy taro. It was quite a pleasant treat.
I also enjoyed watching this woman use what I call the 'old sock' method of fixing Thai tea.
We had a couple of really special meals - one involving a ridiculously enormous steak, called a tomahawk ribeye ...............
......... another at an Australian restaurant (I didn't know there was such a thing as Australian cuisine - but there was lots of barbecue) where I had a very nice cup of tea with my meal and a final meal at an Ethiopian restaurant where we have eaten before.
The basis of the meal in the Ethiopian restaurant is a bread made from a gluten free flour called teff. It is a damp bread - somewhat like a pancake. Food is piled on it like a pizza and one tears off pieces of the bread and uses it to scoop up the particular bits of food you want to taste, using one's fingers. In case you think it is a simple dish, we learned that the fermentation process needed to make the bread is very difficult to accomplish outside Ethiopia, so they fly the bread in already made. On both occasions we've eaten here, we've thoroughly enjoyed this unusual experience.
Lunches were more inclined to be local food, but we really indulged in Bangkok's international cuisine selections.
After all this exotic food, we determined to have a economical local dish for our last lunch.
It's called khao man gai, which basically means rice with fatty chicken. It was at a little street cart that was hard to find, but was an excellent choice for a mellow street cuisine.
Finally Sarah and I had to steel ourselves to say goodbye. It's always much harder when we don't know where and when the next rendezvous will be. I am so grateful that I can meet up with her like this, and just enjoy 'hanging out'! She and Chuck were heading south to meet up with friends in Pattaya and I was flying off to my final destination before home - Shanghai!
awwwww I miss them so much!
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