March 17
Wow….what a wonderful night’s rest. We wake up very refreshed and ready for
another wonderful day here in Bangkok.
Breakfast is once again a delightful experience where they offer a fruit
buffet and take your order for eggs, toast and sausage. We help ourselves to freshly brewed coffee
(the exception here as most coffee is of the freeze dried variety). Today, we opt to head out to the largest outdoor
market in the world, hosting somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 stall
vendors and countless other shops from where we can purchase just about
anything in the world you can think of.
We take care of a few practical matters and then head out to find a taxi
to take us to the Chatuchak Park market.
We ride for upwards of 40 minutes before being let out at one entrance
to what can best be described as a maze of vendors. We look through the amazing selection of teak
furniture and wooden sculptures, some intricately carved from a single piece of
wood. We find our way to the clothes
vendors and are awash in a sea of batik, leather goods, scarves, shoes, T-shirts. This may become a little tiresome after
several hours. We manage to wind around
among countless stalls before feeling the need to come up for air and have a
bite to eat. We find an exit to the
outside and a small hamburger hut that has seats and shade – perfect combination. After eating, we peruse the pet markets, wind
through the china and glass goods and find ourselves back in T-shirt land. Paulie and Hudson decide to call it a day and
go back to the hotel via a water taxi.
Sam, Annie and I decide to venture on and pick up a few more goods
before giving in to our own fatigue. We
find a very efficient taxi home….it is nice to not have a body sitting on my
lap for a change ….and arrive at our hotel within 20 minutes. Taxi ride = $3.00….total experience of
Chatuchuk= priceless.
Back in the AC, we relax and take showers before deciding to
have a leg massage. Sam, Annie and I
head around the corner to be pampered for the next 30 minutes. After our little luxury, we return to the hotel
to prepare to go to dinner. Paulie and I
visit the hotel lobby to try to arrange transport from Bangkok to the southern
islands for tomorrow, but find that we have waited a bit too late to book and
overnight train. Our destination is Koh
Tao, an island on the west coast of Thailand, down the peninsula toward Malaysia. We are told that the only way to go is by bus….not
a very appealing thought since the bus leaves Bangkok at 6:00pm, arrives at
Champhon at 3:00am and then we wait for a ferry at 7:00am to take us to Koh Tao
arriving at 9:30am….its going to be a VERY long night. Not seeing that we have very many options at
this point, we decide to go ahead with our plan and prepare the kids for it
well in advance of having to board the bus.
Annie and Hudson have visited our favorite Kebab vendor and
are no longer hungry for dinner. Paulie,
Sam and I head out and find a quaint outdoor restaurant for dinner. The experience is less than positive as our
waitress is not the slightest bit interested in serving us or in providing a
pleasant dining experience. Two of our
three orders arrive and they are consumed before the third plate makes it to
the table. The final plate is not very good. We pay for the edible food and leave, feeling
the first bit of indifference from the locals that we have experienced on this
trip. At the hotel, we all catch up on
reading and journaling before calling it a night.
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