Back in Bangkok

Lori & Don:

We're back in the big city, Bangkok. Best of all, we have been able to rendezvous with my sister Lori and brother-in-law Don who are here from B.C. I have not seen them since my niece Brianna's wedding in May 2008. A visit is long overdue!

We are staying at the fabulously posh Pullman Hotel which, if you are a faithful follower of this blog (and we'll never know if you're not so no worries), you will recall me mentioning in an earlier post. Our friends Wayne & Trish stayed here and now it is our turn for a splash-out too. W & T, if you're reading this, it's as cool as ever.

These are some photos of the hotel which I pulled off their website:

Breakfast buffet - we must have spent two hours here each morning, just talking and knoshing:

We made a visit to Jim Thompson's House, which has been turned into a museum of sorts. Thompson lived in the early-mid 1900's and is known as the founder of the now-thriving Thai silk industry:

He was an American architect who fell in love with Thailand after serving in WWII. He returned to live here permanently and developed the silk industry, exporting Thai silk to the developed world. He disappeared myseriously in Malaysia in 1967 and his body has never been found. There is all sorts of speculation on what may have happened to him. One theory even has to do with him being a CIA agent. Intriguing stuff. Beautiful silk. This home is made of teak, set in a lush garden right in downtown Bangkok, and is filled with valuable Asian art and furniture:

Now we have matching purses, embroidered with elephants and some beadwork. Mine is actually from Cambodia but Lori got hers last night at the huge Suan Lum Night Bazaar near Lumphini Park:

Lori & Don are making their way today to Chiang Mai to visit missionary friends of theirs. We are taking an overnight bus (groan) to Krabi which is a beach place in southern Thailand. The six of us will meet up again on Feb. 21st in Phuket for another week of fun in the sun and sand.

Farewell to Thailand. . . for now

We have now had one full week in Bangkok and today depart for Siem Reap, Cambodia (a full-day bus trip, will we never learn?).

We stayed in Bangkok a bit longer than originally planned but for good reason. Staying until the 6th gave us the chance to meet up with Wayne & Trish from Ottawa. It also gave us a couple of extra days to organize our visas for Vietnam where we will head later this month (around Jan. 13th). Vietnam is one of the few countries we’re visiting on our RTW trek that does not offer a visa upon arrival (Australia is another one).

Back to Wayne & Trish. Wayne is a social worker at the same school board where I work. He and his wife have been traveling through parts of Europe, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Trish has to return to work in February but Wayne will continue on to South America and Antarctica. Serious travelers! They have an amazing blog, the quality of their writing and photography puts ours to shame and that is not just false modesty talking. Check out their blog yourself and you can read about all their adventures.

Because they’re at the tail-end of their South-East Asian journey, they decided to splurge out and stay in a seriously swanky hotel in Bangkok. Complete with rooftop infinity pool, Ferraris parked outside, and the most modern, streamlined, Zen interior design you can imagine, we happily slummed our way in as their guests and had a blast. It was cool to trade stories, sharing highs and lows of our travels so far, while sipping drinks poolside. Knowing that the four Elborns have been together 24/7, they generously offered us an afternoon off and took the boys to a screening of Avatar – not just Avatar but 3D Avatar and not just 3D Avatar but 3D Avatar on the Imax. The issue of lunch came up. As they hopped into the taxi for the cinema, Wayne tells me don’t worry, we’ll junk them up good. Big grins on the boys' faces. Oh yes, welcome to Wayne’s World – Mitchell & Jackson were lovin' every minute of it.

Did Wayne get a new car??

Flat Stanley is confused - what kind of hotel is this? He likes it!

Gorgeous infinity pool and pool deck:
We gleaned so many great tips from them on places to eat and to stay, sites to see, even which tuk-tuk drivers to use in certain cities. Since they’re not going to France, Africa or Dubai, we had no useful advice for them. We are practically following in their exact footsteps over the next 6 weeks but in the opposite direction. We’ll see the famous temple ruins of Angkor Wat here in Siem Reap, Cambodia followed by a short visit to Phnom Penh. We plan to travel to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam by a combination of bus and boat (through the Mekong Delta). Then we’ll be journeying by train northwards, all the way up the coast of Vietnam stopping at several towns along the way. If time permits, we’ll also fly into Luang Prabang, Laos before returning to Thailand to rendezvous with my sister Lori and her husband Don (from White Rock, BC). So looking forward to that!

Visiting with Trish & Wayne:
Hard to believe we’re at the mid-point of our year already . . . in other ways, it feels like we’ve been on the road forever. Once we land back in Thailand in mid-Feb, we plan to stay put in one place (a beach hopefully!) until mid-April to get back to a more settled routine and catch up on some of the home-schooling that we’ve let slide since before Christmas.

Juab kh’niath’ngay krao-y! (believe it or not, that’s see you later in Khmer, the Cambodian language – not sure if we’ll get to the point where social phrases like that roll off our tongues in the short time we’ll be here).

Happy New Year from Bangkok!

Bangkok is a feast for the senses. . . or an assault on your senses, depending on your point of view. Mitchell & I have been eating it up, whereas Ted & Jackson are tired already of the constant noise, smells and commotion. This mega-city is home to over 10 million people and is full of contrasts. We're staying in the older section with ramshackle shops and el cheapo guesthouses but not too far off in the distance, we can see huge skyscrapers and ultra-modern office complexes. Since we landed here last Wednesday, we've covered the city using the sleek new elevated SkyTrain as well as ridden in marginally roadworthy (but fun) 3-wheeled tuk-tuks. We also took a ride today in one of the water taxis that ply the Chao Praya River. Music is pumping all day and night from every restaurant and storefront, the place is lit up like Vegas, and the street stalls selling pad thai and spring rolls are stationed about every 5 feet apart. One thing we all agree on - the food here is good (very good) and cheap (very cheap). Our Canadian dollarettes will go much further here than in Dubai.

One of the busy streets in the Banglamphu neighbourhood where we're staying:

The pedestrian market street known as Khao San Road in the daytime:.Flip-flops for every occasion: Khao San Road comes alive at night:
Teeming with people (mostly tourists looking for bargains):
A steaming, delicious plate of pad thai for about $ 1 anyone? Khao San Road is busy all night long: Soi Rambuttri, the quieter and quaint sidestreet of our hotel: Mitchell's shoes wore out (literally) back in Africa and he has his heart set on a pair of Pumas:
He looked at them in Dubai and the price gave us pause. Ted said "wait till Thailand" - sure enough, Mitch got a nice leather pair for $ 15. Who cares if they're probably knock-offs when you're only knocking around in them anyway? Both boys are collecting crests from each country we visit. They're made of lightweight fabric and small enough to stuff into their backpacks, so they're the perfect collectible. It's been challenging to find crests in some countries so we were pleased to come across this stall:. We visited the # 1 attraction in Bangkok on New Year's Day: the Grand Palace (former royal residence) built in 1792. Covered in intricate mosaic tiles and gilded spires, it's an impressive complex. We especially liked the mythological giants guarding the entrances. Also inside the Grand Palace complex is the famous Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew). It was stinking hot and humid and there were hoards of people but we were glad to have seen it.

A strict dress code is enforced. Ted was wearing shorts and was forced to rent pants for 50 Baht (just over $ 1) in order to gain entrance.

Aboard the Chao Praya Express boat:

There are waterfront homes and then there are waterfront homes: Bridge across the Chao Praya River:

Ted enjoying the view of the Chao Praya River that dissects Bangkok:

Two young monks riding the river taxi:

Efficient and modern metro system - why can't Ottawa build one of these already?

Our favourite tuk-tuk driver. Whenever one of the kids whooped or said whoo-hoo (such as when he made a sharp turn, for example), this driver would imitate the whoo-hoo and then start giggling uncontrollably:

Planes, trains and automobiles . . . make that tuk-tuks, trains and river taxis: