January 7, 2008 Temp 33

Well here we are back in Bangkok. We left Hua Hin on January 2^nd and came back to cooler temps (27C) but now it’s on the rise again. We’ll be looking forward to some “cooler” time in Chiang Mai later this month. I thought I had a wonderful tan from the beach in Hua Hin and Tom is very tanned. But has anyone else ever noticed that their tan only looks good in the bathroom – something to do with the lighting??? Oh well…

I made what I think is a bit of a discovery. When I’m on the blog page, if I click on a picture it makes it come up on a separate screen in a larger format. Therefore I’m going to input these pics mainly as small pics. Someone let me know if this little experiment works!! Also I do see the comments on the blog page but am unable to respond to them there. And also am unable to compose messages on Yahoo right now – can’t figure that one out yet……….

Back to Jan 2^nd……After an early morning walk on the beach we headed to the train station at 11:30. I think I mentioned that the 1^st class air train was fully booked (that cost about 400B per person). Tickets for the 3^rd class, open window, hard seats (at 44Baht per person) went on sale at 1:00 PM. You don’t actually buy a seat so we started out with only 4 seats. Gone and I stood for awhile and then I sat with Oliver (held him while he slept). After a bit Gone got a seat only to give it up to a Thai lady with 2 babies. He did manage to find another seat though. Tom was sitting with what we both thought were 3 young backpackers. Imagine his surprise when the lady introduced her 16 yr old son and her husband. They’re from Russia, came to Thailand to go to English school for a month - so they talked for 4 hours!! The man was an electrical engineer and she was a teacher. Life isn’t great in Moscow, they left and now think they’d like to open up a business in Asia. They gave Tom their email address should we ever decide we want to visit Russia so for all you travelers out there, keep that in mind. The kids played musical chairs with the adults so there was no reading or dozing off………… Got into Bangkok around 7:00Pm, hopped on the subway for a bit and then caught a taxi home. Had a rum and orange juice with a tuna sandwich and went to bed! Spent the next couple of days cleaning the apartment, getting groceries and doing laundry.

On Saturday (the 5^th) Tom and I grabbed the sky train and traveled to the river. On Sundays there is a “Koh Kred” cruise and we decided it might be fun to do with the kids. But of course we had to get the tickets first – I didn’t want to just leave it to chance. While at the waterfront we decided to do a little walking. We were just standing looking at a huge decrepit building when a gentleman approached us. I must have answered his questions right because he didn’t try to sell me anything – just gave us info. The building was only 7 years old, was supposed to be a huge first class hotel but then the money ran out. You see signs of that all over the place. Sure would be painful if it was a condo you’d bought in to……….Then visited Wat Yannawa which means Temple of Junk. Seems there was a lot of trading with the Chinese so Rama III wanted this monument built to resemble a Chinese trading ship. We just wandered the streets watching the merchants and Thai people doing their daily business. Caught the train back home and spent the evening with Jenn and family with Gone making supper of course.

On Sunday (the 6^th) we were up early and ready for our adventure. It’s a ½ hour walk to the sky train so off we went, Gone and Nicky leaving later by motorcycle taxi. We arrived at the pier at 9:00 AM for a 10:00 AM trip so it was a long wait for the kids. We traveled for 1 ½ hours upriver to Wat Chalermpakiet also built in the reign of Rama III. There was also a 40 acre park here. It was beautiful but once again, being on a tour, you don’t have much time to walk around.

Next it was off to Baan Kanom Thai (House of Thai Sweets). We had lunch here and observed ladies making Thai candy treats. The candy is made from eggs and mung bean paste. This is formed into a shape, covered with gelatin, painted and sold as miniature candy fruit and vegetables. I’m not a big fan but Jennifer loves it.

Our next stop was Koh Kret to see a 200 year old ethnic Mon-style temple and to visit an ancient Mon pottery village. Now, for all you Amazing Race viewers, this was the place where contestants (Rob and Amber) had to carry pottery on a plank from point A to point B. It was very interesting to see the winding passage ways and all the little shop and food stalls. Jennifer tried some deep fried flowers but wasn’t very keen on them. I was tempted to try a fried orchid but didn’t. Imagine, we can hardly grow them in Canada and over here they’re eating them as a snack. Then it was a journey back down river. Everyone had a little snooze except Oliver and I. Didn’t feel much like eating so Jennifer brought the kids up and they had hot dogs and French fries and we had tuna salad toasted bagel sandwiches and beer (that goes without saying)!! Haven’t been up to much today. Went for a walk, checked out a new book store. Actually bought a new Thai cook book and a book for the boys on what do I want to be in Thailand – a monk, a tuk-tuk driver, fruit seller, farmer, fisherman etc. It’s really very well done. Very different stuff here. Will have to search for something different for Isabelle. Also checked out an Italian restaurant called ‘Bacco”. It’s only been open 3 months. The owner walked us through. The meats and cheeses come right from Italy, the décor was beautiful, the pizza oven amazing and the prices looked right too. Think we’ll be making a stop there very soon. Made our way to the grocery store and now here I sit writing this up. Heard there were 3 earthquakes off the coast of BC – didn’t sound too serious - hope our home is still standing!!