We slept and woke up early in Bangkok – just the way I like it (vacation or not!).
I was up by 4:30 am and tried to be as quiet as possible so Heena would get some sleep, but she was up by 5:30 am as well. We enjoyed our favorite pastime in Bangkok: gazing at the river. At 6:30 am we went down for a swim in the pool. Felt good to stretch the body and the swim was refreshing.
On our way back, we saw a sign saying “Private Event: Indian Vegetarian Breakfast” near the pool. We could not resist walking in and trying our luck. We were tired of the regular noodles, eggs and cereal spread the hotel had (which was very good, don’t get me wrong) but we missed Indian food, which in the US is watered down anyway. We asked the manager (or someone who seemed like one) whether we could partake in the buffet even though we were not a part of the wedding party and he said Absolutely! (I honestly think to this day that he did not understand me, but looked at me, I look Indian enough and he just figured I’m part of the wedding party) The breakfast was amazing. The chef was flown in from India and the spice levels were just right with all the flavor. We got talking with an elderly gentleman there and it turns out we were gate-crashing his grand-daughters wedding! Oh well, that was embarrassing! He immediately put us to ease by telling us that we reminded him of his younger days when he would bet with his friends if he could successfully gate-crash weddings and private events! We had a good conversation overall.
After breakfast we dressed up and took the Chao Phraya river boat to Chinatown. Homes are built right onto the river and I can only wonder what happens during the monsoon season if the river floods.
Once in Chinatown, I tried to map our way as suggested by the Lonely Planet guide, but we soon got lost. That was to be expected in such a place, and not such a bad thing afterall. Heena was having the time of her life trying to convince me to let her buy junk (her choice of description, not mine. She actually used the word “bhangaar” – which translated from Bombay-Hindi means junk) .
She did eventually buy a nice cloth handbag that cannot be classified as junk. After about 2 hours of wandering around we got fresh orange juice to refuel. There was a lot of energy and hustle and bustle in Chinatown and I guess that is the reason I enjoy some of these places.
By 1PM we were done with Chinatown and our stomachs were rumbling. We fixed that by taking a tuk-tuk to Khaosan road and headed to May Kaidee – the vegetarian Thai restaurant that we could not find on our first day in Bangkok. The restaurant is in a sub-soi and we found it easily by asking around. Whilst we waited for our order to arrive, we met and chatted with a couple from Oakland, CA. It’s a small world. The food was excellent and we got: Cashew nut tofu, fried rice and tom yum soup (which was the best!).
After lunch, we took a tuk-tuk to Siam Discovery center hoping to catch a movie and sit/sleep in the Gold box (you can recline or lie down in your seat). Unfortunately, they did not have a show for another three hours. We walked around the mall and found a music store, where we bought some traditional Thai music CD’s, and then head back to the hotel via the Skytrain.
We spent some time at the towers lounge from where we noticed a large market on the other side of the river. We enquired with one of the employees at the lounge and he said its a local market that should not be touristy at all! Awesome! We took the boat across the river and walked about in the market. The vendors were not pushy at all and it was very relaxed. Suddenly, it started to rain really hard. We took shelter in the many food stalls and asked the lady if she can make anything, almost expecting she would not understand us, but to our surprise she knew exactly how we liked our food. Before cooking our food, she even cleaned the vessel in which she cooked the food – how thoughtful!. We had one of our favorite meals in Thailand so far, consisting of thai style fried rice and 2 noodle dishes.
It was almost 9:30 PM, and the rain had slowed to a drizzle, we had a flight to catch early next morning and it felt like time to go back to the hotel. We packed our bags and fell asleep by 10:30 PM.
Tomorrow, we head to the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai!
