Thailand Travels Day 2

Chitraroff Blog Thai Entry

Bangkok, Thailand, Day 2

Saturday, 11/19

“pom ben kroo”  I am a teacher.

“no tai mai jai”    I don’t speak Thai.

“korp kun krub”  Thank you.    (Leslie says, “korp kun ka” because she is female).

After our sleep to shake off jet lag, our first order of business was to find breakfast.  Bodhi wanted to have a traditional american breakfast offered by our hotel, but the rest of us had other plans.  So, we spent our morning wandering around the market closest to our hotel.  After wading through massive amounts of clothing vendors (hundreds of stalls selling the exact same thing), we finally rounded a corner and found the food vendors.  We came across five empty chairs in front of a very friendly couple and ordered 5 bowls of noodles.  You could either get them “dry” with no broth or “wet” with broth.  The “dry” portion was akin to chow mien and the “wet” portion was like Vietnamese Pho.  So, we ordered 2 dry, 3 wet.  The broth was so savory and Leslie and I kicked it up a notch with some Thai spices.  It all was delicious and we fed our family of 5 for about 250 bat ($7.14).

The food vendors realized that we were having difficulty expressing numbers beyond 10, so Kahlo got a quick lesson on how to organize higher numbers.  They found a scrap of paper and quickly sketched out how to pronounce numbers beyond 10.  They were very willing to teach us despite our inability to pronunciate properly.  We are learning very, very slowly.

After breakfast we boarded a tuk-tuk (motorcycle with seating for 2).  We crammed all 5 of us into a space designed for 2-3 people.  Yes, there are benefits to being small.  A tuk-tuk ride is an experience like no other.  With minimal traffic laws, it is pretty much a free-for-all on the roads.  Cars, taxis, scooters, motorcycles, tuk-tuks, cyclists and pedestrians are all simultaneously navigating this matrix of chaos.  And remarkably, we haven’t seen an accident yet.  Plus, there is a considerable amount of politeness with very little horn honking amongst the drivers.  The tuk-tuk driver took us to Wat Pho (a Buddhist temple that houses the largest reclining Buddha which was 46m long and 15m high).  That’s about 120 feet long!  

Wat Pho was built in the 1600’s, so it is mind blowing to walk amongst structures that have been in existence for over 400 years.  I know for Europe travelers this is common place, but I’ve never been to Europe so I am impressed, nonetheless (hey that rhymes!).  There must be over 1000’s Buddha statues of all sizes within these grounds with each one being unique in its shape, facial expression, size and gilding (outer coating). In each temple, we are required to remove our shoes and hats and women have to cover their legs down to their knees and both genders must cover their shoulders.  There were female tourists walking around in these bright, green robes who did not have proper covering.  Leslie did her homework and was prepared...that’s my girl!

We walked across the street to the Ministry of Defense which houses the Royal Temple and the Royal Park.  The Thai king who reigned for 70 years just passed away. So, to honor him they were giving away free food and drink outside the Royal Temple. So, we graciously accepted and ended up getting a free lunch of rice and pork, water and green tea.  There is a free lunch, after all!   We were “all templed out” at this point so we wandered around a bit, then found some really fun exercise equipment to play on in the Royal Park and entertained ourselves for about an hour while challenging each other to complete different tasks.  Leslie did 10 spins on this rotating disk, no hands!

We were all pretty tired at this point, so we hopped on another tuk-tuk with a very friendly driver who wanted to know all about us.  He had 4 children with his daughter of 21 years being the oldest.  He was trying to set up Kahlo with his daughter with just the right amount of humor with the proposal.  But, she already had a baby.  After some trouble deciphering his English after awhile, we finally figured out that he was saying “Trump” and “Clinton”.  Apparently, we figured out he was a Trump supporter after showing us the thumbs up sign and a big smile while saying “Tramp” repeatedly.  We were amazed that he even followed the US elections. 

Back at the hotel, we went for a swim, had some cool beverages, and then got ready to head to Chinatown for the night market.  After another harrowing Tuk Tuk ride, we came across the very happening scene of the night market.  We pretty much sampled most of the fare along this 4 block stretch.  There were lines of people waiting to eat at the street vendor carts.  We ate fried dough balls, sectioned pomegranate, thai basil sausage, egg rolls, roasted animal hearts and bbq’d kidney.  There was a vendor selling fried insects and larva of all varieties, but we politely declined.  We will ease into that one a bit...maybe later :).  One of the most entertaining parts of our night was watching the street chefs prepare their food with such speed, agility, and flair.  There were massive flames shooting up the sides of woks everywhere! We will be taking a Thai cooking class together when we head north to Chiang Mai.

The tuk tuk ride home was super fun.  The driver had mounted a blue tooth speaker, so Kahlo hooked him up with his best jams and we cruised back to our hotel with LED lights flashing and some reggae music blaring into the Bangkok night.  

Tomorrow, we will embark on a 20 mile bicycle tour from the farmlands outside of Bangkok and into the city with many stop along the way including one at the floating markets.  Until then, blessings to all of our friends and loved ones.

~The Chitraroff Family

“Lah Gorn Krub”  Goodbye.