From a small island to a big city!

Friday I carried out my plan of spending as much time on the beach as possible.  I started out with yoga on the beach at 8am and then went for a walk in the sand.  I alternated between taking a dip and laying in the sun, constantly reapplying my Nature's Gate sunscreen.  At around noon I decided to get a massage from one of the many ladies walking up and down the beach asking to give them.  I got a one hour full-body Thai-style massage for 200 baht (about $6).  I got her to throw in a foot scrub while she was at it and couldn't believe what a difference it made!  My feet were so soft after and there was a huge pile of skin left on the sheet.  (gross, I know).

After lunch (another wonderful veganized delight at the Thai/Indian place), I read in the shade on the beach until it was time for the last boat back to the mainland.  As the boat left at 5pm, I was still unsure as to whether or not I really wanted to leave this paradise.  But there was lots to do in Bangkok and time was limited.

And the illusion of my brief trip away from this place was immediately shattered...

I arrived in Ban Phe at around 5:45 and was looking for a bus to Bangkok.  At this point it should be easy because all roads lead to Bangkok, but I couldn't see a bus or a sign or a bus stop anywhere.  An old man asked me where I was going.  My first reaction was to ignore him or tell him I was fine because I thought he was just going to scam me but really I had no choice but to ask someone for help at this point.  I told I was going to Bangkok.  He asked me if I wanted a taxi, minibus, or big bus.  I told him I wanted a big bus and he took me to the bus station.  He even helped me get rid of the taxi drivers that were hassling me to hire them instead.

After about 4 hours, I arrived back at the Eastern Terminal in Bangkok.  I had been planning on heading to the backpacker area (Khao San Road) and getting a cheap room at a guesthouse for the night but I was tired and it was dark.  I already knew where the HI hostel was and didn't feel like figuring out a bus or getting a taxi across town.  I walked back to the Sukhumvit Hostelling International backpackers and got a bed in an 8-bed dorm.

I have decided that I don't like air conditioning.  Especially in a country like Thailand in the off-season where it is not at all hot enough to warrant it.  I was still soaking wet from the beach when I left Ko Samet and 4 hours on an air conditioned bus (especially after the sun went down) was damaging to say the least.  I took a shower at the hostel and headed to bed in the overly air conditioned room.  When I woke up in the morning I had an extremely sore throat and a bit of a head cold.

It was the plan to visit the Grand Palace, some temples, and other sites around the old part of the city.  I headed out early and made my way to the Grand Palace.  It was about $10 to get in but the pass was for several attractions and lasted 7 days.  I wish I had taken up one of the guys outside on their offer of an English tour.  There was supposed to be a free English tour at 10am.  I was there a few minutes before and there was no one to be seen.  I really had no idea what I was looking at anywhere and there were no signs to explain significance, etc.  If I were to go again, I would have paid someone to show me around.  As it was it was very interesting to see all the intricate gold and jeweled buildings, statues, and displays.  I always thougt that the pictures looked tacky and I have never really liked gold but to see it like that was amazing.  I also really enjoyed the Emerald Budha.  I had been warned before I went that he was tiny so I knew what to expect.  He certainly was tiny but spectacular none the less, especially with the intricate throne on which he sat and his elaborate "rainy season" cloak.

I visited the Emerald Budha twice and wandered around the rest of the grounds for a bit.  I had lost my sunglasses on the island and was finding it difficult to see with all the white concrete and shiny gold buildings.  My "bit of a" head cold had turned into a full-fledged faucet nose and splitting headache.  I decided to find something to eat.

I headed to Khao San Road where I found a vegetarian restaurant called May Kaidee's Cooking School.  On my way to the restaurant I had to walk along a huge, 8 lane street full of old cars and tuk-tuks.  I had to use my Japanese-style Hello Kitty fan to keep the fumes out of my face so I could walk without choking.  Crossing the street was very interesting as well.  Immediately before entering the restaurant I was thinking how impossible it would be for me to live in this dirty, noisy city.  Once I tasted the food, I thought Bangkok wasn't so bad!  It was the best food I have ever eaten in my entire life!  And SO cheap.  I could definitely live here if I could eat like this every day.  I ordered 2 mains and a dessert and was physically in pain by the time I left but didn't want to stop eating.  The whole meal cost me less than 200 baht ($6).  I was sorry that I didn't have time to take the cooking lessons that are offered every day.  You prepare 10 dishes and then sample them all for a reasonable price.  Instead, I bought the e-book cookbook online when I got home.  I can't wait to try some recipes!

After lunch, I went to the Golden Mount and climbed to the top for an excellent view of the city.  I then went to the Bat Bowl district down the road.  This is the only place in the world where they still make the traditional alms bowls used by the Budhist monks to collect alms from devout Buddhists every morning.  Nowadays most monks used bowls mass-produced in China and the only reason this tradition still exists is due to tourism.  I got to watch them making the bowls from sheets of stainless steel and rudimentary tools by hand.  I then bought a small bowl for 600 baht (about $20).

I decided that my body couldn't handle much more sight-seeing for one day so I made my way back through the markets of Chinatown (mostly because inside the market I could not longer hear the loud choking of the motorcycle engines that was dominating my ears) to the ferry to start my journey back the other side of Bangkok.

On the ferry I met a very nice French couple who randomly spoke Japanese (and English).

Back at the hostel, I took a shower and chatted with a new girl in my room.  I rested a long time and only headed out again to visit another vegetarian restaurant for supper.  I chose Govinda's, what at first I thought would be a Hare Krishna Indian style place.  It was actually an authentic Italian restaurant with cloth napkins, swanky staff, and everything.  Not sure why they chose that name... It was all vegetarian and they used a selection of fake meats in some dishes as well.  The vegetarian dishes looked amazing.  I was hoping to try a lasagna or some other complicated, possibly stuffed dish.  The place was marketed as a vegetarian/vegan restaurant and even in the menu itself that is what they called themselves.  Not sure why.  As a vegan I could enjoy the luxury of spaghetti with plain sauce.  There was nothing vegan on the menu that I couldn't have made at home for a tenth of the cost.  The only dish that sounded even slightly complicated involved three different kinds of fake meat.  It sounded delicious but I eventually decided that I wouldn't be able to handle eating bacon, even if it was fake.  To top it off the only vegan dessert they could offer me was a fruit plate.  No thanks.

I left entirely unsatisfied from my "mediterranean penne" (noodles, tomato sauce, and avocado) and headed down the street to a second veg place for dessert.  This one was called The Tamarind Cafe and had much better vegan selection.  Both of these restaurants were NOT in the cheap range, I should add.  They both had very fancy atmospheres where I felt uncomfortable in my cutoff capris and canada t-shirt sporting a backpack and a runny nose.  But the food was much better at this place.  I ended up getting some raw spring rolls and a slice of exotic pie.

When I got back to the hostel, I was wiped.  I headed straight for bed and set my alarm for 6am.

6am came and went and I was still in bed.  I felt like crap and I decided that the huge weekend market would have to wait.  Eventually I got up at around 9am, showered, packed, checked out, had 2 pieces of toast, and headed out.

The market was, of course, HUGE!  It was impossible to navigate but luckily it was mostly covered and shady so it was a comfortable temperature and not too bright.  I got some sunglasses (that have broken already), a skirt, and a shirt.  To be honest I wasn't too impressed with their fashions for women.  The only things they had that I liked, wouldn't have fit me in a million years or were men's.

I had read in the lonely planet about a veg restaurant near the market that is open on weekends.  The instructions were a bit vague but after a few hours wandering in the market I was getting a bit hungry.  I decided to give it a go and wandered around for another hour or more with no luck.  I felt very weak, to the point of exhaustion.  My health had really gone down hill over the last day and a half and I was now shaking from hunger, heat, and exertion.  I wandered through empty parking lots and down strange alleys for a long time believing I would never find anything and with images of me waking up as the sun was setting laying on the street passed out, ransacked and abandoned.  And then I saw a sign "vegetarian health food store."  This was a strange twist of fate that can only be attributed to divine intervention.  I went into the store thinking I could at least get a snack.  Everything was dried and required cooking so I was in no luck.  As a last ditch effort, I asked the store owner if he knew where the restaurant was.  He pointed out the back door and down an alley.  He came with me to make sure I found it ok.

The restaurant was just packing up for the day and selling off the few plates of food and fruit that they had left.  I got a big plate of delicious Pad Thai with all the fixin's (crushed nuts, sugar, and a bunch of other things she kept holding up and saying something that I assumed was "do you want this on it too?", deep-fried spring rolls, and a plate of exotic fruits.  All for 40 baht (less than $130).

I then left the restaurant with no idea how to get back to the skytrain.  The food had given me some energy but I still felt the need to rest.  I stumbled up and down the pedestrian bridges until I finally came to a toll highway that I had not planned on.  I had to admit that I had no idea where I was.  I stopped some young Thai people and showed them map.  I asked where are we?  They looked at the map for a long time and pointed to many different places (most of them not even in the same neighbourhood as the markets that I knew we weren't far from).  I asked them where is mo chit skytrain station and they pointed diagonally roughly in the direction from which I had just come.  I thanked them and went on my way.

I don't like admiting when I am defeated, especially by a city.  I like to think that I am an experienced traveller and there is always a way out of a problem by myself.  With the little help I could get from the only passersby I knew that the only way for me to find the station on my own was to retrace my steps to the restaurant and somehow remember the miandering path that I had taken to get there in the first place.  If I had been feeling better, this is exactly what I would have done and I would have considered it a learning experience and been proud of my success when I had made it on my own.

Instead, sick, exhausted, and weak, I got into a taxi.  I asked for skytrain station.  He smirked a bit.  After 3 minutes of crawling through traffic, he said we were there.  The fare cost 37 baht.  It is 35 just to get in the cab.  He laughed at me as I paid him, but I was happy with my decision.

After struggling to contain the flow of nasal fluids for the entire overly air-conditioned skytrain ride back the hostel, I got off in Sukhumvit again.  I had already checked out of the hostel but had nowhere else to go.  I bought some postcards at the hostel reception and tried to fill them out but had no energy to do so.  The hostel man came over and asked if I wanted to rest on the roof.  He said it was windy and there were lounge chairs up there.  I had no idea that the hostel had a roof-top patio!  I struggled up the 5 flights of stairs to get there and was well-rewarded with what I found, a tropical paradise in its own right full of teak lounge chairs, tables, and cabinets and tons of tropical plants.  You would hardly know you were in such a big, smelly city.  And from a lying position on the 5th floor, you could hardly see any buildings in the distance.  I sat on one of the loungers and woke up 2 hours later, ready for more food.

I decided to try out a vegetarian indian place that I had passed on the way to the tamarind the night before.  It turned out to be like an Indian McDonald's.  Counter menu, funny hats, plastic booths and all.  It was very strange.  They also had none of the usual Indian food I was used to.  I just wanted a vegetable curry but there were no typical curry dishes to be found.  I ended up getting a masala pancake with soup and two dipping sauces.  It was really good and incredibly filling for the size of it.  After I went back to the Tamarind and got a takeaway piece of chocolate cake and a nut fudge bar to tide me over until my airplane meal.  The chocolate cake was kind of strange.  It didn't really taste like anything but it wasn't bad.  The nut fudge bar was amazing!  I need to find a recipe for something like that or a place where I can get one again.

I headed home on the skytrain (even though it was only one stop) so I could get to the airport in time for my flight.  I was running a little late and it turned out that I drastically underestimated the time it took for the bus to get from Sukhumvit to the airport.  I headed back to the hostel with just enough time to be told that some drunk young Thai loved me (and America), grab my bags and head to the bus stop.

The direct bus to the airport comes around every 30-45 minutes or so but there is no set schedule for it, you just have to go wait and hope that it hasn't just come.  There is also a regular city bus that ends up at the airport.  After about 15 minutes of waiting, and being very tempted by the many taxis with "We love Farang" signs declaring their Engilsh abilities and appreciation of foreigners, myself and my new Japanese friend (an older man who was very friendly but strangely had no luggage--just a sealed cardboard box--and kept scratching his crotch) got on the bus to the Japan Airlines terminal.

No more dramas from there on out.  I bought 3 cannisters of tamarind candies to give out to my students and coworkers.  The ones I had gotten at the 7 11 for cheap cheap were delicious but these, at $5 a box, were disgusting.  Of the kids I have given them to, very few have wanted seconds.

My plane landed at Narita at 6:30am.  The first bus to Kofu left at 8:50.  This bus arrived at Kofu station at 12:30.  I started work at 1pm.  And the illusion of my brief trip away from this place was immediately shattered...  Back to the grind already.