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elanamatic: If It Swims, We Have It
We are now in Bangkok, busy relearning the frenetic pace of urban living. Rushing off to meet people, fighting traffic and crowds, getting lost, exploring and finally collapsing at the end of a long day.
So much has happened since my last update. While in Rai Lee beach, the dude went rock climbing (I would have except two of my right-hand fingers are still recovering) and I went off exploring. On my mini trek I came across a HUGE lizard, he was at least four ft long. Fortunately, he was more scared of me that I was of him and scrambled away. I also met some monkeys on my walkabout but they weren't interested in hanging out with a Canadian.
We really enjoyed our last few days as beach bums. We were adopted by two Dutch couples who were also vacationing on Rai Lee. It's a very small island and we kept running into them at meal times. We'd met the first couple (Yan & Hester) on our longtail boat ride to the isle. The second couple (Rob & Yirma) were good friends of theirs from back home. They were great fun and very warm people, we really enjoyed their company. We might have to plan a trip to Holland one day...
Mostly we spent our time chilling out on the beach, taking naps, playing cards and reading. I've read sooo many books, it's wonderful to have leisure time, I really enjoy reading. I am actually trying to hunt down something new to read. Marie - if you are checking this I LOVED the Russian Debutante's Handbook and insisted the dude started reading it too. He's also loving it.
We also became strongly addicted to drinking iced coffees or beers and watching the spectacular sunsets. I'll be sure to bore you all with photos when we get back.
From Rai Lee we took a boat back to Krabi province and then made our way by mini van (3 hours) to Nakhon Si Thammarat to visit the oldest wat in southern Thailand. The wat was incredible but the city was a very tough adjustment after our island lifestyle. Very few tourists visit there and almost no one understood English. We had a rough time sorting ourselves out. From there we took a two hour bus ride to Surat Thani where we happily collapsed.
The next morning we went off to Khao Sok national park. More travelling. Two hours by car and then an hour long longtail boat. We were happy to be back in nature... We stayed in a little floating hut on the lake. It was quite the experience. We went on a long and treacherous hike through the jungle to a viewpoint. We were disappointed that we didn't see too many animals but somewhat relieved too as our guide had just told us about encountering a 10 ft. King Cobra a few days before in a nearby cave. We planned to visit the cave the next morning but unfortunately we got rained out. Again, we were somewhat relieved as we were stinky and filthy and looking forward to a hot shower, a proper bed and sleeping in a room with air conditioning.
Bangkok has also been quite the adventure... Yesterday we went to the Chatuchak weekend market. It makes any other flea market I've ever been to look like a chintzy dollar store. It was so huge, after six hours of exploring, haggling and sweating, we had only covered a fraction of the market. Having suffering from a bit of shopping withdrawal, the experience was both exhilirating and exhausting.
Last night, we met one of my dad's business associates, Boonyuen and his family for dinner. It was incredible! They took us to the biggest seafood restuarant in Bangkok. Their logo is "If It Swims, We Have It." It's Marche meet Loblaws. You grab a shopping cart and roll it down a tremendously long aisle of seafood (some of it still flapping), picking up various produce on your way. There are also vegetables, fruit, and alcohol available. Then you go to the cash register and pay for your groceries... Once at your table, you direct the menu, telling the chefs how you would like your fish prepared - grilled, steamed, in a soup etc... It was unbelievable. I can't even count how many dishes there were. It's as though we sampled the sea.
I am skimping on details, but we are now on our way to visit the Grand Palace. More soon....
