Tag Archives: Thailand

Back in Bangkok (Again) – Terrible Taxis and Market Marathon

We’re back in Bangkok, for the last time.  We decided to try another hotel near Khao San Road, and it was a disaster.  Lucky House advertised itself as being clean and cheap.  It was only cheap.  But, it definitely wasn’t the worst hovel we’ve stayed in, and it was still in a convenient location.  

Our first day was cut short, due to the massive amount of traffic getting to the hotel from the airport.  Even though Thailand doesn’t have an acting king anymore, they still hold their former king close to their hearts.  Apparently his birthday is December 5th and they celebrate his birthday for the entire month.  This, being the first weekend of the month, is some sort of holiday where people were trying to get home early or get out of town to celebrate, which meant unbearable, stand still traffic for miles (or kilometers).

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After checking in to our hovel, we walked around, showing Sandra all that is Khao San Road.  We, then, made our way to MBK, a huge shopping mall.  Not only was MBK huge, but it was connected by a skywalk to two or three other shopping complexes, a science center, and a center for the arts.  It was immense.  Sandra used the time to purchase a new camera, bargaining her way into a pretty sweet deal.

We ended up on a round about ride by a tuk tuk driver who tricked us into going to a restaurant that would give him a kickback, when we had asked to go to another area.  He lied.  Oh well. But, it took us at least an hour to find a taxi to take us back to our hotel area of Khao San.  Once again, they were either trying to charge us way too much, or simply refusing to take us there.  Work ethics are different here.

On our way back to the hotel, we ended up stopping at what turned out to be a huge night market with carnival rides, games and attractions like a ‘freak show’ (with no actual freaks) and a haunted house.  It was filled to the brim with people, so after some time of shuffling through the crowds, we caught a tuk tuk back to Khao San Road.  We decided that the perfect way to end the evening was to get a massage.  What better way to end the day, than with a massage.

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The following day we ended up on a market marathon.  The last time we tried to visit the Tailing Chan Floating Market we learned, the hard way, that it was only opened on the weekend.  So, we made our way to the riverside market.  It was wonderful.  Stalls selling gardening supplies, fruit, and food lined the street down to the river where a floating dock served as a food court.  Little wooded boats were lined up around the dock, serving up fresh seafood like grilled prawns, scallops, and even chicken satay.  All was delicious and the relaxed ambiance served for a very enjoyable morning.  We chose this market specifically for this reason.  When you tell a taxi driver you want to go to the Tailing Chan Floating Market they tell you about how they will take you to a better, bigger floating market.  Those are jam packed with tourists, and maybe some locals, and I hear it can be a hectic, stressful experience.  We leisurely made our way through the market without being hassled by anyone, and most of the other patrons were locals, with a foreigner sprinkled here and there.  It was really nice.

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Afterwards, we caught a cab to Chinatown.  We walked around the streets revisiting their electronics section, in particular.

We decided that one more market was in order, so we caught a tuk tuk to the Skytrain station in order to arrive at the Chatuchak Weekend Market, the largest weekend market in Thailand.  This place was massive.  Hundreds of stalls selling ‘I love Bangkok’ tees, Thai silk tissue box covers and ties, street food treats, and even a western store selling 10 gallon hats and cowboy boots.  

It had been a long day and we were ready for our last meal in Thailand before heading back to our hotel.  

Moving On…

Seth gave me quite a scare.  A hospital in Thailand is not ideal.  But, they were good enough and after some tough days, he seems to be on the mend, though his culinary experimentation phase has come to a screeching halt (understandably).  

Getting to Vietnam was a two step ordeal.  Due to flight times, we would have to fly from Phuket to Bangkok, and the next day fly from Bangkok to Hanoi.  We had a bag of unused items and souvenirs that we wanted to stash somewhere in Bangkok.  So, once our flight landed, we hopped in a taxi (a metered taxi from the airport) and sped off to a storage facility in the center of Bangkok.  After some confusing back and forth with the driver, who knew about as much English as we know Thai, we got him to agree to wait a minute while Seth dropped off the bag, before heading to our hotel, which was right across from the airport.  I’m not sure what he thought about the whole ordeal, but he seemed to think it was funny.  

What I thought was funny was driving up to our hotel.  Our hotel was disguised as a car wash, and I think it was an undercover no tell motel.  I wish we took pictures, because it was such a funny place.  It was mostly clean, and the bed happened to be one of the most comfortable we’ve had in a while.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it, but Thailand seems to be notorious for very hard/firm mattresses.  This, mostly clean, bed was much softer.  

We asked the woman at the front desk if there was a shopping mall nearby.  She asked us if IT Shopping Mall was ok, and we said, “sure!”  There have been so many acronyms on our trip and shopping malls tend to be referred to by their acronym.  Who knew that this time the acronym would be so literal in English.  The mall was full of IT gadgets.  It was a mall of adapters, monitors, speakers, phones, and anything else you and your electronics collection may need.  And our dinner options were minimal.  But, we ended up going to a chinese restaurant that had been recommended to us in the past named MK (note the acronym).  It was pretty delicious.  We ordered a mix of noodles and dim sum like foods.  

We woke up at 4:30am to catch our flight to Hanoi.  Unfortunately, when you hail a taxi at odd hours, and not odd hours, there’s a high chance that your taxi driver will be drunk.  We noticed this very quickly.  Even though the ride was only about 10 minutes, we almost got out and walked, because he was bad news.  But, we made it to the airport and from there it was pretty straightforward; long lines, airport employees who don’t make sense, seats with no legroom, and smelly people sitting next to you.

At the airport in Hanoi we grabbed a super cheap sim card for our phone and found our hotel shuttle.  The Landmark Hotel is in the old section of Hanoi.  We walked around a bit and found some interesting lunch of sautéed  veggies.  We’re pretty excited to see Sandra tomorrow!

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Turns out it wasn’t sun stroke. Since my condition worsened and my fever hadn’t gone away after 3 days, we decided to get to the hospital in Phuket. Oddly enough, it’s name is Bangkok Hospital. I don’t want to go into the gritty details of my condition, but they gave me fluids and against doctors orders I signed myself out, and I am self medicating. We cross checked all this with our nurse friend, Sandra, who will be joining us in just a few days in Vietnam, and she said self treatment should be fine. I don’t recommend going to a hospital in Thailand. In plain view across from us was a guy with his leg cut open to the bone with a doctor with no mask digging around trying to get something out, beds full of people groaning and crying, and a nurse that has to be THE WORST nurse in the world at giving an I.V.

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Sunstroke is No Joke

Since last post i’ve been laid out on my back in our hut feeling like i’ve been beat on by a gang of monkeys. The sunburn that followed our little adventure wasn’t so bad but other symptoms started creeping in, like stiff joins, a horrible headache, sensitive skin, nausea, and a bloated painful stomach. My first thought was to get on web MD and type in my symptoms (bad idea) for at least a full day we were convinced I had either malaria, west nile, yellow fever, dengue fever, or meningitis, none of those would have been fun. At this point the fever is low enough where we are fairly sure it was a bad case of sun stroke and severe dehydration.

So if you plan on kayaking 8-10 miles in 97 degree heat drink more then just one liter of water.

Phuket Weekend Night Market

Below are a few videos of Berkley’s first and second intentional insect meals. When in Rome..


The market was huge and covered in tasty looking food. The shopping on the other hand was distinctly focused on tourist, although we were able to find a few good souvenirs.

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Made it to Phuket

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Khao Sok

Up early and off to Khao Sok national park, we were picked up by the tour company at around 8 am and by 9 am we were in the jungle. Our guide Ja was a humorous, ex park ranger who joked with us while leading us through the park trails. We spotted some monkeys (langurs), a stick bug, squirrels, and many birds. After an hour hike we stopped for a brief swim in the river. The water was cool, refreshing and filled with carp, needle fish and catfish of all sizes. We stopped for lunch and had a rather bland tourist version of massaman curry and some fried chicken. After lunch was a bamboo raft trip down the Khao Sok river.  We stopped to have tea boiled in rungs of bamboo, served in bamboo cups.  As our tea was simmering one of the raft captains took us for a little stroll through the jungle nearby.  We saw a giant durian tree with young spiky durian.  It’s no surprise that these fruit can be fatal if one falls from the tree.  They can become about the size of a basketball and is encrusted in hard, sharp spikes.  We, then came upon some rubber trees.  Berkley was intrigued, because the little bowls collecting rubber were mostly full, with a plump white ball.  Our raft man didn’t speak much English, but with some miming he told her it was ok to touch it.  It was springy and wet, just as you would expect fresh rubber to feel.  What she didn’t expect was the smell.  Sadly I learned this too late, as everybody had already followed suit and touched the rubber.  It turns out that rubber smells absolutely abhorrent.  The smell clung to our fingers throughout the rest of the day, despite many washing attempts.

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As we were floating down the lazy river on our bamboo raft, I spied a rope swing.  I swung like Tarzan off the random dangling rope. Berkley shot some pretty great video of me swinging on the rope. Almost as amazing as my dads video of me catching a huge tarpon on the beach in mexico.


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We continued on, and our raft captain pointed out a mangrove snake coiled up in a tree.  Pretty neat.  Quite soon after it began to rain thick, heavy rain.  Within minutes we were drenched to the bone.  It sure put the rain in rainforest.

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Island Life

We woke up in Ranong, ate some breakfast, then made our way to the dock to catch a boat to Ko Phayam.  We had the option of taking the slow boat which could take two to three hours, or a speed boat that would take between 35 and 45 minutes.  The choice was obvious.  So we sped off through the waters of the Adaman Sea to the tiny island of Ko Phayam.  At the dock we caught a motorbike taxi to our hotel.  There are no cars on the island, only bikes and scooters.  Our bungalow is a super cute freestanding structure with a room and a partially outdoor bathroom.  It’s pretty sweet, and we’re steps away from the water. 

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We took a walk back to the little village to grab a delicious lunch of spicy noodles and thai tea.  We then rented a scooter to scoot around the island.  It’s quite small, and takes less than a half an hour to cross it most ways.  It’s going to be a few days of lazing around a small island, wading in warm ocean water…

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We’ve scooted around the island, checking out all the beaches, and messing with little crabs.  Most of the food we’ve eaten has been fiery hot and delicious.

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Thai My Shoe

Thailand is a place I’ve been trying to get to since the sixth grade when  my friend Melissa Nonsrichai told me all about it and invited me to accompany her to visit every summer.  My parents were too nervous to let me travel, but I don’t have to worry about that anymore.  So, here we are, in Bangkok, eating as much spicy food as possible.

The flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was bearable.  Seats were small, and the guy sitting next to me reeked of cigarettes and had foul breath.  But, it was only five or six hours or so, so whatever.  At the airport we were able to get a really cheap data plan for the iPhone (about $30 a month for unlimited data), so now we can have maps and even write and publish blog posts from the phone.  So, hopefully that will mean more content.  We hopped in a metered taxi and made our way to Khao San Street to find our hotel.  Man oh man, I hadn’t anticipated the scene when we arrived at Khao San.  When the Rough Guide said that Khao San was the tourist/backpacker mecca, I pictured something similar to our time in Thamel in Nepal.  Khao San is like Thamel’s younger, rowdy, cousin, who is on the edge of being out of control.  The first few establishments you see are ‘hometown favorites’.  Golden arches, the King, and the Green Siren all have real estate on this small street.  Storefronts are eclipsed by street vendors selling overpriced cheap wares like tank tops with kitchy logos, dreadlock extensions, and bathing suits.  You have to watch your toes at all times or you may be run over by a street food vendor, but I’m okay with those.  Street food carts hold anything from pad thai to fresh coconuts, and all of it is delicious.  Bars selling overpriced alcohol and multiple 7/11 shops quench the thirst of tourists who would not otherwise be of drinking age.  Staying in a tourist area like Khao San has both advantages and disadvantages.  For one, everything a tourist may need is condensed into a small area, but the prices are inflated, and in Thailand the government encourages inflated prices for tourists.  But, you have to push through mobs of people at the end of an evening to get back to your room, which won’t necessarily be a quiet place to sleep.  Though I will say, our room was very clean, well appointed, and reasonably priced for the area.

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Our first night we found a little restaurant to grab some dinner, and it turned out to be delicious.  Seth ordered a medium spicy, red curry with chicken and baby peanuts.  The flavor of the dish was delicious.  I ordered a seafood soup with mussels, fish, shrimp, squid and lots of vegetables.  We both ordered well, and truly enjoyed our first meal in Thailand.  They were both quite spicy, and the change was welcome.  Although, between the heat outdoors and the heat of the food, it is going to prove to be a sweaty trip!

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Our next day we covered a lot of ground.  We walked all the way to Bangkok’s Chinatown area.  It took quite a while, but we stopped at many food carts on the way.  This is where we met the boy with the sugar glider (aka squirrel).  We sampled sweet, little, taco looking treats comprised of a sugar wafer ‘taco shell’, filled with ‘marshmallow fluff’ and one was topped with toasted coconut shavings and the other with bonito flakes.  They were delicious.  We, also, found a bag of Jackfruit on the way.  Jackfruit is awesome.  It’s a huge, bumpy, melon like fruit with little pod like flesh inside.  The flesh is firm and tastes like a mix between a ripe banana and a pear.  I love it.  Though it is not in season at the moment, we, also, bought durian. Durian is known as the king of fruits for it’s size and it’s ‘spiky’ exterior.  Because it’s not in season at the moment, I guess it’s not as stinky as normal.  It was pretty good, but it did leave our room smelling a bit.  Note to self: only eat outdoors.  We tried so many other delicious Thai treats.  The Thai sausage was delicious and filled with ginger and pork, and we enjoyed a bowl of spicy noodle soup as well.  There were other treats too, but too many to name!

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After doing tons of walking around Chinatown the skies opened up.  When it rains in Thailand it doesn’t mess around.  The lightning is blinding, and the thunder is deafening.  It’s really cool.  It started to look and feel like it was going to rain, and our hypothesis was confirmed by all the shopkeepers covering their goods with plastic.  We found a covered area of the market and walked around as the rain poured down.  In the markets they sell just about anything you could need, down to sink faucets, hair ties, stove burners, and bootleg porn DVD’s. It serves as an interesting place to walk around.

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Eventually we caught a tuk tuk that told us he’d take us to our street for 20Bht if, on the way, we could stop at a market first.  We noticed we were going in the complete wrong direction and inquired with our tuk tuk guy.  He handed us a card that said that if he took tourists to this market he would be given 4 liters of gas, even if we didn’t buy anything.  He began to drive even more, and when asked he was hazy about details and told us we’d be going 10 minutes before we reached the market, and we were driving in the wrong direction.  We decided it was possible we were being scammed, so we hopped off at a red light.  He didn’t protest, so perhaps our suspicions were correct.  Many guide books warn you about being taken to a shop just to look, then being forced to hand over large sums of money to be released, and being roughed up in the case that you don’t pay up.  We potentially dodged a bullet there.

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That night we found our way to Lumpini Stadium, where we watched Muy Thai Boxing.  I was nervous to attend, but Seth assured me I’d be ok.  I was imagining the chain link cages of ultimate fighting, but this was nothing like that.  You could tell that the guys were not going for a kill, or even a knock out.  It was about points, and it seemed like a respectable sort of fighting.  Though the fights were interesting to watch, the exciting part, for me, was watching the crowd.  During certain matches the crowd would become so animated and would call out at each individual hit.  Though gambling is illegal in Thailand, it was blatantly taking place inside the stadium, with police turning a blind eye.

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The next day we took a boat ride down the Chao Phraya River.  We were able to view many temples from a distance.  We got off at the Sky Train stop and took a short ride above the city.  We disembarked at a giant fancy schmancy mall that we’d heard about.  It was interesting to check out the food court.  It was almost as if we hadn’t left Japan.  The food court was dominated by Japanese restaurants.  In a wave of nostalgia we stopped for some takoyaki.  Though it was decent, it was not nearly as delicious as the ones in Japan.  No big surprise there.  Afterwards we searched the mall for a new pair of sandals for Seth.  His were done.  We were successful so we put his old Reefs to rest later at the boat dock in hopes that someone who needed them would pick them up.  

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After the mall experience we walked around the streets and found some street food.  We found some delicious Thai Sausage.  It comes on a stick accompanied with some cabbage, ginger, and what are called mouse dropping chilis.  Oh so good.  

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The following day we made our way to Wat Pra Khao to see the Emerald Buddha.  Though he and the room that enshrined him were quite spectacular, just as magnificent were the grounds surrounding it.  The architecture of the buildings were quite dramatic with roofs that sloped down and out, fashioned in bright colors, accented with mirrors of many hues.  The stone temple guardians were equally impressive, towering over us with bright menacing faces.  

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Later we visited the Wat Pho which holds the colossal, reclining, golden buddha.  This buddah is huge and though relaxed in his pose, quite imposing.  After a long day of walking we made our way back to Khao San for massages and relaxation.

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The next day was a bit of a flop.  We took a taxi all the way out of town to the Tailing Chan Floating Market, only to find that it was strictly a weekend market, and we were there on a Friday.  Oops!  But, we were able to find a great meal of noodles, soup, beef, and fish balls.  We had another flop that evening.  Seth had read about a restaurant called the Royal Dragon which, in the 90’s, The Guinness Book of World Records named the largest restaurant in the world.  It sprawls across 4 acres of land, is run by over 2,000 servers, and holds entertainment like dancers and muy thai boxing within.  Pretty impressive.  Well, something to know about many foreign cities, is that taxi drivers and tuk tuk drivers are mostly criminals. Even when their taxi boasts a sign that says ‘metered taxi’ they may refuse to use it and refuse to drive you without your commitment of an exorbitant fee.  Similar with tuk tuks.  So, when we wanted to hop in a cab to go to this restaurant which was way too far to walk, we found no one who would use their meter, and no one who would agree to a reasonable price.  After standing  and trying to flag down taxis left and right for quite some time, a monk approached us and told us a better place to stand and when we told him where we were going he recommended us not to take any deals over 120 baht because that was more than enough.  To give you an idea, drivers were asking for 500 plus.  Criminals! Not all, but most.  After about an hour or so of searching we gave up and ate at one of the overpriced touristy restaurants nearby.  

The next day we hopped in a taxi to take us to the airport so we could begin our journey to Ko Phayam.  Somehow, even though it was a metered taxi we were charged way too much.  He apparently pushed the toll button despite the fact that we gave him cash for the tolls.  We paid at least twice the price for this cab ride than we had paid when we arrived.  But, we made it to our flight on time and it was a quick and easy flight with some rewarding views of slick ocean flats and islands that seemed to leap out from the ocean.

The next step was to take a minibus from the airport into town to get to the bus station.  See, our flight landed in Surat Thani, and that was not our final destination for the day.  We waited an hour and a half before we embarked on the minibus, and then waited another half an hour or so before we actually left.  After stopping for gas, lunch or dinner for the driver, and to pick up some papers, we finally left town and made the perilous 3 hour journey to Ranong.  It was cramped, the roads were a bit scary, and our driver was in a real big hurry to pass all other cars despite oncoming traffic, blind corners, and military check points.  But, somehow, we made it to Ranong.  We called our hotel who sent a shuttle to pick us up.  He took us to our nice hotel with nice people, we settled in, then left in search of dinner.  We were lucky to find a street nearby with tons of food.  We returned to our room with flat noodles with chicken and greens in a thick brown sauce, a ‘salad’ of sorts with a melange of ingredients such as fish balls, tomatoes, onion, chicken feet, hot dogs, wood ear mushrooms, and so much more, all doused in a lime, vinegar, chilly sauce, and we topped it off with a bowl of vermicelli rice noodles with various fish paste shapes.  It was all delicious.  We feasted back at our room.

This morning we are going to catch a high speed boat to a lazy little island named Ko Phayam.  

 

 

 

Failed Royal Dragon attempt

After around 15 taxi drivers flat out refused to take us to a restaurant we wanted called the Royal Dragon (named the biggest restaurant in the world by Guinness) we headed back to tourist-ville to drown our sorrows and pricey watered down drinks and curry.

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