Art fun

On Sunday we then headed to the Bangkok Art and Culture Center in central Bangkok (as mentioned in our previous post).  It is 9 stories tall and free to all visitors.  The top 3 floors house the rotating art gallery.  The middle 4 floors is called the art-trium and has little shops, most of which help a good cause.  One floor was art from a senior project of a local school.  It was all about media and how it affects our lives.  It was really neat.  Here are some pictures of the event.

 What the Bangkok BTS would look like without corruption.  Currently it is 2 lines, both running to only 3/4 of their stops.

Click on the image to see it bigger. lol.

 A hand hat for watching the tv.

 Oh no!

Found my ears 

I don't have anything! 

What are you looking at? 

Classic Asian pose (if you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up.) 

Just two birds stuck in a cage with nothing to say.

Last weekend in Bangkok

On Friday (the 3rd, we're trying to catchup!) the bus dropped us off at Khao San road where Kim and Annika met us for dinner.  At O! Hungry Andy ordered a chicken pie and I had curry. Afterwards we wandered around Khao San road, stopping for a massage at an outdoor stand where we all got half hour neck and shoulder massages for 100 baht ($3.30).  It was fantastic for Andy and I who had been traveling all day.

We then went to a bar called Food Garden that was down a little side street and we sat in a little wooden structure and had cocktails.  Then met some of Annika's Thai friends at a street bar and all sat down at a folding tv tray and had more cocktails.  It was fun to be in the middle of Khao San and people watch all the tourists.

Saturday we did some laundry, had american breakfast at the little shop that serves ice cream with everything and sorted out our money situation.  We discovered that $2000 baht ($66) and my debit card were stolen from our backpack while we were on the bus (the bag was stored out of sight underneath the bus).  So we spent a couple hours figuring that out and canceling my card.

We met up with Annika and Milky at J J Market, otherwise known as the weekend market (supposedly the largest market in the world).  We wandered through it's many streets for a couple hours before it closed.  For dinner we headed to a lebanese restaurant in the middle eastern part of town (little Arabia).  We all split a of couple dishes.  Hummus, Makabol (eggplant hummus), taboulie, naan, lebanese bread, chicken tikka, chicken masala, and potatoes with egg.  It was all incredibly tasty and fun to eat something other than Thai. We also both tried hookah for the first time (mint) which was fun to experience, but neither of us are really smokers of any kind.

If There Was No Courruption

On Sunday we went to the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. It was a sort of fusion between an art gallery and a bit of a market. Some things on display were for sale and others were just there to be viewed. We didn't buy anything, but there were lots of interesting things to look at. The above photo is map entitled "If There Was No Corruption" and it shows what the Bangkok public transportation system would be like if all of the money that was suppose to go into public transit actually made it there. After a couple of hours wandering around the Art and Culture Center we met up with Annika and went to a beer garden which was basically an outdoor food market with a bunch of tables, food stalls and beer. It was a really laid back place to hang out and finish up our time in Bangkok.

Being a local on Sunday

Sunday we got up super late and the first thing we ate was lunch outside the hospital by Kim's apartment.  We met up with Annika and Milky to go to a temple on the outskirts of Bangkok. Temple was fun but much more involved than I expected - there were more rituals and just things to do involving incense and the like than there were at the buddhist temple we stayed at in Korea. And... I just looked up buddhism in the dictionary and now realize that Koreans generally practice Mahayana Buddhism where as Thais generally practice Theravada Buddhism (the more conservative tradition).

We prayed over an oil can that was then blessed by the monks and then poured into a thing to keep a constant burning flame going.  We each took 21 incense sticks and prayed (or made wishes or just hoped, I'm not sure) at seven different buddha statues, leaving three incense sticks at each buddha.  There was a fortune telling ... game where you shake a can of sticks until one of the sticks falls out, then look up the number on the stick on a billboard full of predictions.  All of this is is outside in the heat and humidity with no shoes, but at least covered by a roof.

Inside a nearby temple

Milky then graciously brought us back to her house (which doubles as a family restaurant) and gave us all kinds of fruit (Jackfruit, mangos and starfruit).  The jackfruit is that giant green fruit in the corner of this picture.  It isn't really comparable to any fruit in the US.

The inside of a Jackfruit

After fruit we went to dinner which was literally around the corner from Milky's house. We sat down at a table and were given a large ceramic pot full of coals. On top of the coals was a metal plate to grill food and surrounding it was a trough of boiling water to boil food.  A buffet of uncooked meats was set up to choose from.  Many types of pork, one type of chicken, several shellfish and shrimp options, a couple of fish/fish balls/fish dumplings.  It was an experience to say the least.  Coconut ice cream for dessert!

Once back at Kim's house we wound down the night with several episodes of Modern Family.  It was really relaxing to do something normal like watch tv.

Saturday in Bangkok

On Saturday we had a leisurely morning and went to a restaurant down the street from Kim's that served American breakfast (Kim had been there once before). In all honesty you could really classify the place as a dessert joint but I certainly wasn't going to complain. I'm pretty sure everything on the menu came with ice cream. I had waffles with bananas, Katie had pancakes with bananas, and Kim had a ham and cheese sandwich (no ice cream).

After breakfast we headed to Khao San Road, the famous (or infamous) "backpacker mecca" of southeast Asia. To get there we took a songthaew to a river boat which were both great experiences in and of themselves. Once at Khao San we did plenty of shopping, browsing and eating. After some massages we headed back to the boat and back towards Kim's, stopping at some other outdoor markets to browse and buy.

For dinner we met up with one of Kim's co-workers, Annika and went to a restaurant that served both Thai and Isaan (a region of Thailand) food. We shared three dishes amongst the four of us: a minced chicken dish, a swamp cabbage dish and a sweet and sour chicken with vegetables. All were over rice.

After dinner we headed to Cheap Charlie's, a bar that seemed to have a lot of tourist clientele. With a few $3 Bacardi and cokes under our belts we headed to a street bar. At some point every night (or just on weekends) people park their vans/cars/carts on the street and open up bars for folks to drink at, usually with a couple of plastic tables and chairs set up right on the sidewalk. The first bar we stopped at was an old VW van with lots of cool lights. This street bar may or may not have been in the vicinity of multiple working girls, it was honestly hard to tell. I can however confirm that there was at least one ladyboy in the mix. After one drink we headed to a second street bar down the street, where I had my first Singapore sling (I'm pretty dumb for not having one in Singapore) and then caught a taxi home.
Bangkok is crazy and amazing.

Cheap Charlies with Kim (middle) and Annika (right)

One of the street bars

First day in Bangkok

Be forwarned: there are no pictures in this post.  Sorry!

Once we got to the train station in Bangkok we exchanged the rest of our Singapore dollars and Malaysian Ringgit for Baht.  Our friend Kim, who we are staying with in Bangkok, teaches class until 3:30 everyday, so we had a few hours to kill before meeting up with her.  We ate lunch at the food court in the railway station, vegetable curry with rice (30 Baht a plate = $1), then took the underground MRT to the above ground Skytrain (BTS) to MBK, a large shopping complex (Kim's suggestion).  There was a free baggage storage in the mall which we took advantage of while we shopped and generally just wasted time. In true American (or New Englander?) fashion, we bought two donuts and a large orange juice from the Dunkin Donuts. I had a coconut bavarian creme donut and Andy had a rocky choco donut. They were both delicious.

Once 3:30 rolled around we gathered our bags and headed out to meet Kim at the Skytrain station near her house.  She lives in the Sathorn neighborhood of Bangkok, close to a really impressive looking hostpital and school (the school she teaches at).  For a few hours we hung out and caught up on life and our travels and her travels and laundry.  For dinner we met up with a couple of Kim's friends, fellow teachers, at "Coke tables" which is what they call the place because the tables have Coca-cola written on them.  I had more vegetables and rice but Andy had a red chicken curry which had a bit of spice to it. The three of us split a Singha beer.

We rounded off the night with wine back at Kim's house.