The Traveling Martens

One last night in Bangkok....

An afternoon in Bangkok's Chinatown felt more like being in China than Hong Kong did. We pass through a couple streets and we are suddenly in a maze of small allies filled with stalls full of everything you can imagine. Actually, most of it was things you can't even imagine, as we couldn't identify most of it in the food stalls. There were stalls of curries, tea leaves, fruits, fried somethings, and raw fish. By now, we are experts at identifying which stalls to hold our breathes as we pass, as the fish stores in Hong Kong, elsewhere in Bangkok and here in the China town are very pungent. We were the only white people here, but most people acted like we weren't there. Chinatown was also clearly a major trade area, as we passed wholesale storefronts, where Indian businessmen were bargaining with Chinese salespeople who were selling Thai-made shoes, belts, bathroom fixtures, diesel motors, etc. We saw small storefront factories where workers were twisting strands of steel cables by hand. Before leaving Chinatown, we stopped at a dim sum restaurant for a bite to eat. We ordered, and accidentally got a custard bun (which we would never have tried normally), but it was sweet and amazing.

We took the train back to the Sukumvhit area where our hotel was and stopped for another massage. This was a two hour one and was a workout! We both got a Thai massage which beat up our muscles and left us feeling sore and a little tired for the next day.

For dinner, we broke two of our eating rules: 1. Never eat at any place recommended in the guidebook, and 2. Never eat at any place that's not crowded with locals. However, we wanted some authentic Vietnamese food to compare to back home, and there was a place recommended which was close to our hotel. It was a nice restaurant, however, the food was just okay. The kick in the ass was when the bill came and we figured out that they had charged us for our napkins and glasses of water, in addition to the usual 10% "service charge" which is common at restaurants here. We have to expect that this will happen once in a while, especially when we are in Europe in a month, but we would feel a lot more comfortable arguing about it there than getting thrown into a Thai jail.

Overall, it was a good night though, as we had three elephant sightings! We also walked back to the hotel through the Soi Cowboy "Cowboy Street" which gained fame for the women who service GI's during and after the Vietnam war. It's still common today as many of the tourists here in Bangkok are single guys who came here. Even our dinner cruise on a nice yacht had older English men with their "dates". We ended the night at an outdoor cafe with a nearly full moon above.

Thoughts on Bangkok- We would love to come back to Thailand, but would like to hit the islands and beaches where we could enjoy the Thai food, friendliness, and weather. It's hard to describe the contrasts in Bangkok. The people are friendly, but the hawkers trying to sell you knock-off clothing, the taxi drivers, and the restaurant and bar touts are annoying- probably due to how poor most of the people are. The city seems modern at times, but then you realize an elephant is standing next to you on the sidewalk. It would appear that there is a lot of construction, but actually many of the half-built skyscrapers are abandoned projects, many of them left after the 1997 Asian crisis. It was fun though, and we enjoyed it as definitely the most different place we've seen. We are very excited to try cooking even more Thai dishes at home!

posted by Mel and Stacy Marten @ 3:48 AM