Day 220, Bangkok, Thailand
We set out before noon, a record for us, to see the Buddhist Temple of Dawn or Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan. Since we have yet to be out this early in the day, it felt like we were nocturnal animals crawling out of a cave, surprised how bright and hot the sun was. For the noctural, the yellow lights make it look gold–it’s very impressive from across the river. In the daylight, it’s more of a white/grey which they describe as a pearly iridescence.
There isn’t that much to do after you’ve walked the perimeter, so we took the boat shuttle across to The Grand Palace.
First we got a bite to eat, authentic pad thai. We wondered if the local people eat this dish or if it’s tailored for our North American pallets. If they do eat it, is it actually called pad thai here?
We walked over to the Grand Palace, and the place was packed solid. There were so many little tour guide flags in the air, it was almost comical. If we wanted to do this, we would need more time. We opted for some Baskin Robbins ice cream and air conditioning to plan our next step. The girls enjoyed Asiatique, the Riverfront market, so we decided to spend the evening there. We hopped another boat that would take us right to the Asiatique dock. The boat was full until we got to the Sky Train stop, then it emptied out. We got off the boat one stop too soon for Asiatique, and ended up walking through the ends of other boats to get to shore. We saw little a school for younger children and high school girls crowded around a noodle cart.
We got to Asiatique 45 minutes before it opened. We sat in a little cafe and Paul got a coffee and I got a mango smoothie that had unidentified little black crunchy things in it. We played name that crunchy bit, but none of us could come up with an idea for what it was other than seeds or bug bits. We drank it anyway.
During full days of walking around, feet get tired. I’ve come to appreciate these necessary respites. That means we have to take a moment to have coffee, ice cream, fish pedi, watch the river or anything else. It’s a forced pause to soak in
what is going on around us.
After the market opened we started down the small alleyways. Madi was determined to find a pair of Alladin pants with an elephant pattern. Cali and I did the fish foot cleaning thing, her for the second time. The sensation was something to get used to. it’s a cross between mini-electrical zaps and a rough tickle. We paid for 15 minutes, but they let us stay for closer to 40 minutes. We were drawing in business, talking to the the English speakers who passed by wanting to know what it felt like, asking if they could take pictures. My feet were beyond pedi-soft when they came out. I wonder if the fish would just eat your skin to the boney nub if you never removed them.
Shopping for clothes is very interesting. We never saw a dressing room in any store or shop. I wonder if people here think the garment is no longer new if it’s tried on by another person. One vendor let Madi slip pants on over her jeans, but others didn’t. One woman, when I asked if I could slip the dress over my tshirt, said “You no try on, you buy!” It was only a $6 gamble. We ended up buying a dress for me and a dress and top for Cali without trying them on. The dress for me looked like an apron when I tried it on in the bathroom. I lost the gamble, but Cali won–her stuff looked great. Surprisingly Paul was able to return my bad dress for another, which did not look as horrible.
We ate at a restaurant called Checkmate, that had good salmon, and then went back to the place where we’d eaten a few nights before for dessert. Paul was in search of Banofee pie, that they had run out of the last time we ate out at this
particular restaurant. They confirmed they had it, so we sat down. The Banofee pie was not what we would traditionally expect, but rather a base of oreo cookie crumbles at the bottom, some bananas, sweet goop, whipped cream and a maraschino cherry on top. Guess he’ll have to stick to the Starbucks version.
We shopped until feet were too tired to do another aisle. That place was big and could not be completed. We packed it in and went home.
