We arrived in Bangkok in the late afternoon and went to our wonderful hotel that Amy had found the evening before (thank you internet!). Amy has talked about the hotel in her blog (below), so I'll tell you about the Bangkok food.
We left the hotel, destined to take a ferry on the Chao Praya river down to the southern end of the old part of town. But just after we got out on the street it started to POUR RAIN. And I mean pour! One of those tropical downpours that seem to me about an inch of rain per second. So we stayed under the sidewalk awnings for awhile and actually bought some amazingly yummy streetfood, which was a fish cake kind of thing with a sweet/hot sauce. Also we bought a little ball of whole fried shrimp. Unreal. But the rain wouldn't let up, so we went in a dark alley and ended up in this very local restaurant where I'm sure most Americans would fear to tread. But this guy was making some nice looking pork dish that we ordered. For drink, only Pepsi, there is not a Coke in sight anywhere. In fact, after walking the streets of Bangkok over the next 5 hours, I realized there was not a Coke to be seen, but Pepsi everywhere. Also, for some reason, there are a lot of 7/11 stores.
Anyway, our pork dish was delicious and it was still raining when we finished, so we ordered a dry noodle with vegetable dish, also very good.
By this time, it had stopped raining, so we went own to the river and caught the orange ferry and took it all the way down to the southern end of the old part of town, maybe about 5 miles or so. We got off at the flower market (stop #6). By this time it was quite dark, but we wandered through this wonderful market, very local, and not a tourist to be seen. They make these beautiful flower offereing things that they take to the temple.
From here, we wandered north, looking at our map and kind of figuring out where we were, but we weren't exactly certain. We figured we'd eventually get a taxi back to the hotel, but as we walked we saw some of the beautiful temples, Wat Po, the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Bhudda. These were all closed for tourist, but were lit up and you could see their beautiful golded towers.
After about 1 1/2 hours of walking and seeing not one foreigner, passing many little shops and many, many food stalls (all selling what looked like amazingly tasty things) we ended up on the Khao San Road. Wow, what a difference a few streets make.
Khao San is the famous street where all the young tourists go. There are lots of bars, restaurants, trinket shops and just zillions of t shirts for sale, some of them very strange. Lots of young women prowling around and lots of young white males (and some not so young) with some of these women. Not one of the nicer aspects of Bangkok. Oh well, to each his own, I guess. But it was fun walking down this street. Most of the carvings were pretty bad, but there were some small bhudda statures that were carved quite nicely.
After an hour or so on Khao San, we figured we were only about a 45 minute walk from the hotel, so we headed up there, soon passing a massage place right on the street. 120 bhat (about $3) for a half hour foot massage. Who could pass this up after walking about 3 miles? Oh, was this nice. Nice Thai ladies massaging your feet is one of the great pleasures of life. We've had this many times in Bali, but here it was a bit different, as we were right on a main street, with lots of traffic noise and music blaring from a nearby restaurant. No matter, it was just what the doctor ordered.
After that it was a 45 minute walk to the hotel, with a quick last stop for a hot bowl of fish ball soup on the street. I'm sure most Americans would be freaked out by eating street food here, but I must say that it is delicious and cheap. And I figure as long as it is cooked well, then they must kill all the bugs.
This morning we are heading down to Railey, which according to Lonely Planet, is the most beautiful beach in Thailand. Our flight is an hour late (so far), so hopefully we will make it by sunset.
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