Thursday night, but probably won’t post this until I head down to the lobby on Friday morning to use the internet. We made our way into northern Thailand and are currently enjoying the air conditioned hotel room in Chiang Mai. The cars and mopeds in the streets are still crazy, but everything feels incredibly laid back compared to Bangkok.
I can’t quite come up with any words to describe Bangkok. Busiest city I’ve ever been in. So very different from anything we’ve seen, yet in many ways more American than the European cities we’ve become accustomed to in the last couple of years.
Skyscrapers, concrete, cars, pollution, kids playing on the non-existent sidewalks, stray animals, then randomly a quiet temple in the midst of it all. Every area of town harbored stuffy alleys filled with food carts, each emitting an unfamiliar (and usually unpleasant) smell. The food carts would appear around meal times and then disappear shortly thereafter. Most of the foods weren’t recognizable, and walking through these alleys on an empty stomach was the best way I could find to stave off hunger. After a few hours in Chinatown and another neighboring area we decided to call it a night and celebrate the end to a 90-95 degree day with a dip in the pool. Of course, just as we got back to the hotel the temperature dipped and thunder clouds started to roll in. We jumped in the pool anyway, but after a little while we decided we’d had better ideas than freezing and watching lightning in the distance from an open-air pool on the sixth story of a hotel (even though we were surrounded by 30 story buildings), so we headed up to the room for the night. The storm never reached our hotel, but better safe than sorry.
We spent a few hours visiting temples on our second full day in Bangkok. Wat Pho was listed in the guidebook as the second stop on every tourist’s itinerary, but also everybody’s favorite. We ended up going straight there, and didn’t regret missing the #1 stop. Oddly enough, the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, the main attraction, was far from the coolest thing about the temple. After leaving the temple we headed up the street to the amulet market, but didn’t find any trinkets worth buying, so we decided to start moving to the hotel so we could collect our bags and make it to the train station without having to worry about missing our train. Good thing we left when we did. It was about a three mile walk to the nearest metro station, then a short walk to the hotel after that. Normally the taxi or tuk-tuk (basically a three-wheeled cross of a VW and a golf cart) fare would cost $1-$2 to cover the three miles. Bargaining is also a big part of Thai culture, which we just aren’t very good at. Well, as we began our walk the monsoon rains hit, and within two minutes we were soaked in a wonderful summer rain. I welcomed it as a relief to the 95 degree heat, but considering Miranda was wearing a white dress, we opted to wait out the rain under a tent on the side of the road. Ten minutes later we were on our way again, but the rain made all the drivers more confident, raising their asking price to $5-$6 to cover the distance, and their agreed prices to $3-$4. We refused to pay more than the normal price, and as a result ended up seeing a lot more of the city than we planned to see. I’d say very few westerners have ever intentionally covered those streets on foot.
(Continuing to type on Friday now)
We had seen a lot of 7-Eleven stores around town, and an occasional McDonalds or Subway restaurant, but these really didn’t surprise us. However, walking into a grocery store was like entering a completely different, yet very familiar, world. The grocery store we visited wasn’t terribly far from the main expat area of town, so I can’t claim that this was a typical Bangkok grocery, but it felt more like we were walking through a Byerlys than a local grocery store. They still had a larger grain aisle than anything you’d find in the US, but with each step we came across American products and brands that we hadn’t seen in the last three years. We gave up searching for Crisco in Sweden after six months in the country, just accepting that our cookies would be flat. Of course that was the first thing we saw at this grocery store. I should have made a list of all these “new” items, but I was hungry, so instead I focused on what to eat.
The train ride to Chiang Mai was good. Evening departure and arriving at 7:45 in the morning, so we booked a first class sleeper car. The tickets were cheap, the food was cheap, and it had air conditioning. We did expect a little extra space in the first class car, and ended up dedicating about 85% of our foot space to our four suitcases and two back packs. They served as decent foot stools though, so I shouldn’t complain. The best part of the ride was the morning ride, ascending through the hills, through some jungles, then entering the plains where the rice farmers were out walking among the flooded rice paddies.
We opted for a nice hotel in Chiang Mai that was recommended by a guidebook and was also well-rated on one of the online hotel-booking sites. The main criteria in selecting the hotel were that it had to have a pool and free wireless beat hotels without free internet. We got here at 8:30 in the morning and our room was ready; seemed kind of odd. Well, it turns out that the hot/rainy season is also the low tourist season, so we’re sharing this 100+ room hotel with two Italian men (according to the guest list Miranda saw). The staff outnumbers the guests six to four. Not too shabby. The only problem is that “luscious gardens” advertised on the website means “mosquito breeding grounds”. The room had about 10 mosquitoes in it when we arrived, but they were defeated after a short battle. The AC has been blaring ever since, and they seem to prefer the warm humid air outside, so we’re comfortably safe for now. The staff keeps shaking the bushes and using an electric mosquito swatter to zap the swarms of bugs in the courtyard, and it looks like there was a citronella candle burning outside our door yesterday evening; all greatly appreciated.
Last two things.
The food is spicy. That’s an understatement. Miranda’s papaya salad totally blew our mind. Shredded papaya, some dressing, peanuts, tomato – all okay – but we weren’t expecting the hot chili peppers and whatever else they put on there, and unfortunately for her sake she didn’t notice them before taking her first bite. That was one heck of a way to start a meal. That was the second time we’d had to order additional drinks to help us cope with the crazy-hot foods we’d been served. Yeah, we’d eaten hot Thai food before, but wow, there have been a few meals that have totally changed our concept of spiciness.
Speaking of spicy, here was a conversation with the server on the train that left Miranda in tears (of joy).
Scott: I’d like meal #2, but it says “not spicy”, can you make it spicy?
Server: No spicy
Scott: But I want it spicy
Server: No, no spicy
Scott: Yes, spicy
Server: No spicy!
Scott: Yes spicy!
Server: I bring chili sauce (and flashes a devilish grin)
The chili sauce came in a small container, probably about two tablespoons worth of juice with fresh peppers. I poured all of it over my rice dish and after a few bites I’d realized I’d made a mistake. I should have opted for “no spicy”, and used my bartering skills on something more productive.
We stumbled upon a crazy awesome temple gathering last night in the center of town. Thousands of people flocking into the area, buying flower bundles, incense and candles, and then praying and placing these on sacred shrines, in and around temples. Thai folk music, little carnival area for kids, food vendors, monks everywhere, and the best part of everything was that we were just ignored the entire time. Nobody wanted to sell us something, nobody wanted to hand us flyers to the night’s kickboxing match, nobody asking “where you from Where you going”, nobody wanted to direct us to “the big Buddha statue, very close, ride cost only 40 baht”, it seemed that everyone was perfectly happy letting us just hang out as casual observers. It was wonderful.
That’s all for now, got a relaxing day planned full of naps, swimming, reading and massages.
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