Bangkok
It’s our last day in Bangkok and we’ve had a really good time. On previous visits we’ve worked flat out with little time for looking around but this time we’ve spent a day in the UNESCO office but the rest of the time has been our own.
Our hotel room on the 31st floor has great views over the city towards the river and is close to a Sky Train stop – a huge advantage in this city of choked and choking streets
We spent one evening with friends from Canberra who have spent the last 2 years at the Australian Embassy here – Stephen and Cordelia Gee. It was great to see them and hear about their life here. Cordelia has been remarkable in the way she has embraced thai life – her first 6 months learning the language has paid off and she has a wide range of thai friends including her early morning Tai Chi class in Lumpini Park and her weekly commitment at a local orphanage where she interacts with the babies.
Another evening we went to a delightful restaurant with UNESCO friends, Rupert and Michiko Maclean who lived here for 7 years but are now in Bonn – like us, they were just passing through Bangkok and our paths happened to cross. Cabbages and Condoms isn’t the most elegant name for a restaurant – it was the brainchild of a local doctor, trained in Melbourne, who was desperate to address sexual health and family planning issues faced by locals. The income generated supports a wide range of development activities across Thailand. It is also just a fabulous place to eat. The outdoor eating spaces are like fairyland. Don’t miss it if you come to Bangkok.
When Rupert got in touch he suggested that after dinner we could go on to the Bamboo Bar at the Oriental Hotel down by the river – a great place for jazz and a drink. That was a bit of a challenge – I had a decent dress to wear but a choice of hiking boots, rockport lace ups or hiking sandals for my feet – none of which looked quite the thing. So I hit the markets and then the shops and felt very much the ugly sister trying to squeeze into Cinderella’s glass slipper. Amidst the giggles of the shop assistants, it soon became clear that there were no ladies shoes big enough for my feet so eventually I consoled myself that in my little black dress and hiking sandals I was still a lot better off than the man who begs each day outside our hotel who has no feet at all!! Needless to say, we had a great night out.
When we went for our morning walk on Thursday in Benjasiri Park, we took a few photos of a Tai Chi group. While I was clicking away, Phil was invited to join the class – he had a ball. Most of the class were elderly ladies who were very welcoming and keen to teach him the moves and help him get his breathing right. I would like to think that the various groups we belong to at home would be just as welcoming to a stranger who showed some interest – but are we?
On previous visits I had never managed to get to Chatachuk – the weekend market and decided to give it a try. Phil had been to Chinatown with me earlier in the week – his ultimate nightmare with its narrow, crowded lanes, people everywhere, odd odours and potentially life- threatening breaches of every health and safety regulation you can imagine. He wisely decided to give Chatuchuk with its 9,000+ stalls a miss and spend the morning working on a paper for an upcoming UNESCO conference. I was particularly interested in buying some fabric. I’d talked about a visit to Asia with Christy before we left. She has been teaching medics on Bird Flu so I asked for advice. She was pretty laid back about it – I guess crossing the road here is riskier than catching bird flu – but she said she would steer away from eating soft eggs, undercooked chicken and avoid bird markets. With that in mind I checked my market map carefully and noted the areas to be avoided. It is an amazing place – great variety of all sorts of crafts and produce at unbelievably low prices. Everyone tells you to bargain and expect to pay around half of the first mentioned price. I am hopeless at bargaining. These people typically have so little and I have so much that I feel like giving them extra rather than less. After buying 4 necklaces, two scarves and no fabric I tried to locate a fabric shop I had seen earlier – BIG mistake. The first rule of Chatachuk should be ‘If you see it, buy it’. It’s so big that your chances of ever finding something again is extremely remote. But I kept searching and alarmingly found myself in the middle of the bird section. I tried to make a quick exit but found myself amongst even more birds – even peacocks in tiny cages. I checked my map and this section indicated “Lots of birds’. How could I have done this? I guess I’ll survive. I’ve taken a couple of vitamin C tabs. Christy, is there any research evidence to indicate that it will help ward off Bird Flu?
Anyway, that’s pretty much Bangkok. I haven’t mentioned to river trips, tuk tuk ride, ferry along the klong or Phil’s beautifully tailored 4 new shirts and 2 pairs of trousers. We’re off to Hong Kong this afternoon.
