Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Bangkok: The other side.
This post is dedicated to the wonderful feasts and sketchy transportation of Bangkok.
So now that i've shed the hot, sweaty, farangs of Th Kho San road, I find myself in the sweetest airconditioned, five star hotel with a shower bigger than my whole room at the Siam guest house. I hang out with diplomats and expats at the bars at night, and during the day cruise the airconditioned malls for the best knock-off goods. It's a tough life this teaching business.
Anyways food. It is incredible here. Not only are the orange fanta and banan' pancakes still plentiful, but with my newly found confidence thanks to the 5-star, aircon hotel I have ventured out to try the delic street vendors. WOW! They are incredible. The curried pork on a stick along with some fresh fried noodles is a classic for only 20c. Also this morning i got up extra early since i was so excited to try out the free breakfast buffet. WOW! over 100 dishes of everything you could ever want to eat, wantign to get my deals worth i ate a little too much, but it was so worth it. Not to mention the excitement of gettign to have a bowl of PRO-STARS cereal for the first time in over 15 years. I love Thailand.
I've met up with the 10 other volunteers (britsh and canadian) and we all went out for dinner last night at the NOOD-BAR. the english translation leaves something to the imagination, but it was still great. it was one of those point-and-pray ordering methods, but i ended up with some amazing singapore-style noodles with prawns and pork.
The brilliance of Thai cooking is balanced by their inability to conceptualize proper driving techniques. Apparently Thai's regard any sort of official driving rules as anthethetical to good sense and well...anything goes. The tuk-tuks are my new favourite transportation option as you get the rush of being at exhaust level of the big trucks/busses but the (somewhat false) sense of security of a few metal rails around you. Although trying not to get scammed is the bigest obstacle to overcome. I've masterd the vocabulary of "no stops, no gas, no shops, 40 bhat" that usually lets you get your way, but even yesterday we got scammed and tuk-tuked aroudn the city to different suit shops and government offices. Even with the scams the barely legal aspect of tuk tuks is still worth 40 bhat just to weave in and out of the "recommened" three lanes of traffic that usually end up to be about 8-9.
Anyways this side of Bangkok is amazing. I just got back from visiting the Canadian embassy and the consul-general met with us and told us where he vacations in the south if we ever want to drop by, oh and how HIS 20 year old son is also teaching here....hmmmmmm ;)
I promise i'll get pictures up asap. This city is just screaming to be photographed and I can't wait to get out there.
So now that i've shed the hot, sweaty, farangs of Th Kho San road, I find myself in the sweetest airconditioned, five star hotel with a shower bigger than my whole room at the Siam guest house. I hang out with diplomats and expats at the bars at night, and during the day cruise the airconditioned malls for the best knock-off goods. It's a tough life this teaching business.
Anyways food. It is incredible here. Not only are the orange fanta and banan' pancakes still plentiful, but with my newly found confidence thanks to the 5-star, aircon hotel I have ventured out to try the delic street vendors. WOW! They are incredible. The curried pork on a stick along with some fresh fried noodles is a classic for only 20c. Also this morning i got up extra early since i was so excited to try out the free breakfast buffet. WOW! over 100 dishes of everything you could ever want to eat, wantign to get my deals worth i ate a little too much, but it was so worth it. Not to mention the excitement of gettign to have a bowl of PRO-STARS cereal for the first time in over 15 years. I love Thailand.
I've met up with the 10 other volunteers (britsh and canadian) and we all went out for dinner last night at the NOOD-BAR. the english translation leaves something to the imagination, but it was still great. it was one of those point-and-pray ordering methods, but i ended up with some amazing singapore-style noodles with prawns and pork.
The brilliance of Thai cooking is balanced by their inability to conceptualize proper driving techniques. Apparently Thai's regard any sort of official driving rules as anthethetical to good sense and well...anything goes. The tuk-tuks are my new favourite transportation option as you get the rush of being at exhaust level of the big trucks/busses but the (somewhat false) sense of security of a few metal rails around you. Although trying not to get scammed is the bigest obstacle to overcome. I've masterd the vocabulary of "no stops, no gas, no shops, 40 bhat" that usually lets you get your way, but even yesterday we got scammed and tuk-tuked aroudn the city to different suit shops and government offices. Even with the scams the barely legal aspect of tuk tuks is still worth 40 bhat just to weave in and out of the "recommened" three lanes of traffic that usually end up to be about 8-9.
Anyways this side of Bangkok is amazing. I just got back from visiting the Canadian embassy and the consul-general met with us and told us where he vacations in the south if we ever want to drop by, oh and how HIS 20 year old son is also teaching here....hmmmmmm ;)
I promise i'll get pictures up asap. This city is just screaming to be photographed and I can't wait to get out there.
# posted by Laura Davies : 11:22 AM
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a) Can we please drop by the consul-generals place when we are in the south? Potentially a very good story to tell...Might start with "Remember the time that Megan..." I love that girl.
b)So jealous that you are in the kok. Its nice to have someone test the waters first so I know the ropes before I arrive. Thanks lab rat.
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b)So jealous that you are in the kok. Its nice to have someone test the waters first so I know the ropes before I arrive. Thanks lab rat.
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