Eight Days in Bangkok

It's hard to believe how easy it was to spend eight days in Bangkok. OK, we did spend some time running errands (sorting Australian bank stuff, etc) but mostly we were enjoying the city life-- shopping, hopping around town on public transit (something there wasn't much of in Vietnam), just taking in the action in the biggest city we've been in in ages. It's funny to think that on our first visit, we barely lasted 4 days before we were dying to leave. All we can figure was it was too much culture shock, a fear of spending too much money, and maybe spending too much time in the neon-light, "very strong cocktails", dreadlocked hippie tourist circus around Khao San Road.

This time we took a few days venturing into the thriving Siam Square area, the ultra-modern area in the centre of the city, full of megamalls and skyscrapers. We spent a whole day wandering the seven floors of the MBK Centre, a mall full of trendy Bangkok teenagers, with an entire floor devoted to all things mobile phone (we got utterly lost there and will never return to "cell phone purgatory" if we can help it). But what other downtown shopping mall can you arrive at by taking a riverboat past old temples and then a monorail between modern towers? The journey's half the fun! On our first visit to Thailand, coming from Canada, finding chain restaurants like Pizza Hut and A&W would not have thrilled us-- but after two months in Vietnam (where the only chain eatery is "Ga Ran Kentucky", or KFC) it was a real treat to have a DQ ice cream, a Starbucks frappuccino, a Pizza Hut pizza, and an A&W root beer. Maybe we're just too North American!

We finally visited the Grand Palace-- which was very grand and beautfiul. It was incredibly hot though and hard to really enjoy wandering the grounds, and despite our tries to dress the "proper" way this time (we failed twice last time!) we were still forced to wear the prescribed hospital-style pants (Adrian) and Thai silk wrap-around long skirt (Dayle) to tour the place, since our shorts were just not long enough!

And the best thing about Bangkok: Chatuchak Market. It's got to be one of the biggest markets ever-- our Lonely Planet says it has 15,000 stalls-- and only runs on Saturday and Sunday. It's a madhouse of people in a shopping frenzy; if you hate crowds, it's not a good place to be. You can buy just about anything there: clothing, paintings, furniture, used books, garden supplies, ladyboys (well, that's a guess), even pets. In fact, pet squirrels were all the rage when we were there, and some were even dressed up in little t-shirts. The puppies and the kittens were unbelievably cute too, and if you were the proud owner of a cute pet, you'd best bring it to the market to show it off. We were blown away by all the cool fashion shops and cool t-shirts galore- it's all a real fashion show, and in the three days we went to Chatuchak, we spent so much time browsing and people-watching we hardly bought a thing. Good fun though!

We've found the key to really enjoying Bangkok (besides shopping your heart out!) is just to sit back and enjoy the show. Check out our pics from the last few weeks in Vietnam til Bangkok-- we went on a little uploading spree a few days ago. Enjoy!

Goodbye Vietnam, Hello Bangkok!

We made it-- we're in Bangkok again. After 65 fantastic days in Vietnam, a place where we had so many good times, saw so many amazing places, and met so many awesome people, we're pretty sad to leave. Just as we were really getting used to the Vietnamese way of life, the language, the food, it's time to trade it all in for something new. Yarrr visas....

And it's definitely strange getting back in a place that's still quite familiar even after two years of being away. We arrived late last night, on a plane ride that took less time than the bus trip to the Hanoi airport. One of the nice things about Bangkok though-- polluted and sticky and hot as it is, you can show up at 12:30am without a place to stay and still have a million rooms to choose from. (In Hanoi you'd be pounding on the metal shutters of the closed hotel lobbies, waking up the staff who sleep in the lobby!) But it also means we're back to the stuff we forgot about-- teeny, basic rooms with shared toilets (though I swear there was toilet paper in the bathrooms the last time we were here!) Ew.

Ah, we'll get used to it. There's plenty to be excited about-- great food, smiling people, those fabulous beaches down south, and today, Chatuchak Market. It's the mother of all markets, it only goes on the weekends, and the stalls and the bargains go on forever. Now if only we could remember how the bus system works again....

goodbye, Bangkok... hello Chiang Mai!

Today it's time to ship out of the bustling, noisy blur of Bangkok. Three days was enough for us... we explored a bunch of wats (Buddhist temples), peeped on praying monks, petted stray kitties seeking Buddhist nirvana (or just naps) within the decorated walls. It made for lots of great photos-- check out our album... Adrian was working hard at downloading some pics.

It's hot and sticky in Bangkok-- you blow your nose and it's black, and two showers a day are necessary! We're finally getting our way around the Khao San Road area (that hippie backpacker haven... it's a little bit Cancun, but full of Europeans). We stayed on a street nearby and it was much quieter. the five flights up and five down to our room everyday gave us quite the workout!

Things we've noticed lately:
-we've seen zero spiders so far (hallelujah!) and only two big red cockroaches. Most of the wildlife around here consists of stray cats and dogs (we see one orange kitty sleeping on top of stacks of CDs of a street vendor every night) and the odd rooster. There's a really annoying bird that wakes us up every day...
- There's definitely an invasive feel to this place-- esp. when you arrive, sweaty and jet-lagged. Every tuk-tuk driver (these little three-wheeled things with crazy drivers) wants to take you to see a "lucky Buddha" or a "tall Buddha". We got taken for a ride (sort of) once, for 20 baht (about 60 cents) and we had to turn down offers of cashmere suits and sketchy tours companies. On the bright side, we got whisked around the city in style and had a good chat with a local Thai man inside a temple. Basically, on our fourth day, we've learned to say "no thanks", firmly and walk away! We also know k\now that sometimes the locals just want to chat, and find out where we're from. We found out that golf is pretty big here in Thailand!
-We finally met someone who spoke English today (i'm talking travellers)... a lady named Linda who shared her Cambodia tales and tips on guesthouses. Before that was a night with a Belgan dude who only spoke French (my skills are bad! Adrian did a little better) who introduced us to street food... we had a rice porridge dinner with egg and ginger and green onions in it for about 50 cents! wow. No idea what it was called, but it was yummy....
-And the food! Plenty of yummy things to try... though the vegetarian thing is a little rough. Banana pancakes for breakfast and fresh pineapple off the street. It's good stuff. We're divided on the best beer though-- Adrian likes Chang and I prefer Leo. (Do they have this at the LCBO? maybe someone can tell us!)

We're learning some Thai vocab-- hello, thank you, some numbers, and the bill please! Street names are hard to remember, which doesn't help in this maze-like town. But the river taxi is loads of fun, and we've taken that a few times to head to the sights...

We hear Chiang Mai is amazing... full of temples and Northern culture. It's a 10 hour bus ride that we're taking overnight. The shopping is supposed to be great... I've been very good and bought one necklace today (had to practice bartering! Adrian was rolling his eyes). But we're gonna come back with some goodies from the north I think....

Miss you all! We'll try to respond the best we can, but let us know how life is in snowy Canada, while we're fending off mosquitoes and re-applying our deodorant.
Love Dayle and Adrian "?"