Day 217, Bangkok, Thailand
Our sleep cycles still aren’t synced up to this time zone. Went to sleep at 10 pm, work up at midnight, stayed up until 3 am, then slept until 12:30 pm. We were originally going to go to the large mall in town and pick up more clothes for warmer weather. That won’t work. Cali was up at 6 am to do math tutoring which was happening at 6 pm in Florida. She fell back asleep at noon and slept until 4 pm.
Paul and I headed back to the Big C, which is a shopping mall, huge apartment store, food court, pet center. We got a couple of coffees which yesterday came in a larger cup, but today they told us no to that option. We ended up with more of an espresso style in a small paper Dixie cup. Caffeine beggars can’t be choosy, I think that’s how that cliche was supposed to go.
Thai food court.
After that we went to the monster grocery store. We bought pitaya for Cali, it’s her fruit of choice here and so inexpensive. She starting eating these in Guatemala. In FL we pay dollars for a single dragonfruit, here we got eight for
a dollar. She eats three at a time for a snack. Happy kid.
They like their juice boxes and have an entire row for these.
Fresh fish and fish snacks.
Different drinks.
Cali’s favorite snacks.
They have bras and baked goods together.
There is an entire row of rice cookers.
Turns out there are two entire floors to the mega store we had missed. One of those floors had small appliances, and a coffee maker! We bought one. We have bought one in every location we’ve stayed in except Turkey. We couldn’t find a drip coffee-maker there and were only there for a week. It’s easy to find anything you need here. Getting noodles, however, can be deceptively complicated.
After shopping I wanted to grab some noodles to go. This was a complicated 20 step process.
1. I went up to one of the noodle stalls that had pictures of the food. I pointed to the one I wanted.
2. The chef tried to look over the counter to see what I was pointing at, but couldn’t because it was at the wrong angle, and he was trapped.
3. He disappeared into the back room and I thought he was coming around. Turns out he was getting his phone. He wanted me to take a picture of what I wanted. Younger generation always turn to their phone first for a solution.
4. He handed me his phone, I couldn’t find the camera.
5. I hand his phone back, he finds the camera.
6. It won’t take a picture, some Thai words come on the screen.
7. I hand the phone back, clearly his memory is full.
8. He starts going through the pictures of his son trying to find one to delete, he is having difficulty, swiping back and forth.
9. That makes me sad that he will need to delete a picture of his son just so I can have lunch.
10. I turn to a woman and point to the picture and then to the chef.
11. Woman is confused, but hangs in there with the charade.
12. Chef stops swiping, realizes what I’m doing and asks the woman to tell him what I am pointing to.
13. She gives a big smile and tells him, he is all smiles, I’m all smiles, we are having a smiley cross-cultural moment.
14. He cooks my noodles, I point to To Go container, he packages up my food.
15. I hand him money, he says no.
16. Now I’m confused and try to give it to him again. He says no, we are at a stand still once again.
17. He rummages around and finds a little card and points as if to shoo me away into the random distance.
18. Ding! I must need to pay with a cash card. I wander into the random distance until I find a counter that is selling these magic cards.
19. I return proudly with my card, get my noodles, we are both relieved, he is still smiling.
20. I go to the next counter to get something else, try to give my card again and am refused. She will only take cash.
Triumphantly we return home with a coffee maker and hot noodles. Sometimes it’s a little things that make it a good day.