Thailand Trip Post 7

January 4, 2015

              We slept in! And had breakfast at our guesthouse before walking to the nearest bus stop and trying to figure out which bus would take us to the train station. None of them apparently. After about an hour of waiting, and consulting with a helpful old British man who had a bus schedule, we gave it up as not going to happen and hailed a taxi. Once at the train station, it was simple to find the metro system, purchase tickets (black plastic discs), and find the Jim Thompson House.

              Mr. Jim Thompson served in World War II and joined the CIA. When he retired, he moved to Thailand and built a traditional Thai house. He bought traditional Asian art of all kinds, lots of it from China, and basically turned his house into a ready-made museum. He became interested in the Thai silk industry and helped to revive it and keep the traditional way of weaving and dyeing from dying out. He disappeared on a trip when he was in his 60s and was never found. His house was turned into a museum, with all proceeds going to help the silk industry in Thailand.

This lovely woman performed some traditional Thai dance. The finger movements feature heavily and are enhanced with long, claw-like finger pieces.

Part of the extensive garden around the house

The living room

Yummy appetizers

and curry

              After a turn of this lovely house, and a trip to the gift shop, we had a wonderful (expensive) lunch at their restaurant. Then, we headed out to do some shopping! We chose the MBK Center and it`s acres of shops. There was so. Much. Stuff. There was a whole floor of tiny stalls full to bursting with electronics. That floor was so bright and noisy we just headed right back down the escalator. Way too much stimulation. We finished our souvenir shopping here, as well as picking up candies to bring back to our offices as omiyage (souvenirs, usually food, brought back for all your colleagues). We stumbled across a shop that sold tins of Thai tea, so we could make our new favorite drink back home. Yum!

              Our main goal was the shoes though. Japan is full of cute footwear that is usually out of size range for our big American feet. Thailand, however, if full of tourists, and combines cute shoes, large sizes, and low prices to create a wonderful smorgasbord. I finally got new all-weather black boots and a couple pairs of flats for work and everyday stuff. We both ended the day with arms full of bags.

              The top floor of the shopping center had a restaurant called The Fifth. It was a very fancy food court. You got a card with 1,000 baht credit when you entered. You gave that instead of cash when you ordered food from the various places. When you were finished, you took the card to the cash registers at the exit and paid for whatever you had used. There were lots of options, from all different countries, Thai, Arabic, Greek, Japanese, steak, pizza, desserts, etc.

              We made the trek back to our guesthouse through a combination of trains, taxi, and walking. Tomorrow is our last day, and we have to check-out by noon, so we packed up our bags and turned in early.

Thailand Trip Post 6

January 3, 2015

              We were up at 6am for our tour to the Floating Market. We had fruit for breakfast while we waited for our pickup which was over an hour late. I had a bad case of motion sickness all during the drive out to the market. The bumpy, twisty road, and hot day didn`t help at all. I felt better as soon as we got off the bus and walked around a bit. Oddly enough, being in the boat didn`t bother me a bit.

              All the vendors at the market were very pushy. Which makes sense, since the whole reason we were there was to buy things. There was lots of physical touching and grabbing to get your attention, though, which was not welcome at all. And if you showed the least bit of interest in something, you were immediately entered into some sort of haggling conversations. The more you professed disinterest, the lower the price and the more insistent the vendor.

A look at the boats we were in

Here's what the shops looked like.

We're having a great time!

Some of the houses we saw on our short boat tour

              We picked up several trinkets here, magnets, little jade elephants, scarves, and finally got to eat some dragon fruit. Victoria and I checked out some of the shops on land and got to practice our haggling skills for some clothes. I ended up with a scarf that I talked down from 700 baht to 300 and a skirt that I got for a few hundred less than she first asked for. Having exact change really helps the whole process. The only reason we were able to leave at all was because our boat tour was starting and we had to run off. Literally. We had to run out of there and she was still calling bargains after us. The boat tour was run in a long tailed, motorized boat and we got to see some of the houses along/on top of the river.

              When we got back to the city (no motion sickness this time), we hiked over to the Grand Palace. After borrowing some skirts to cover up better, we got to walk around inside the complex and look at all the pretty sparkling buildings. Among the many structures and important things they held was the Emerald Buddha. Even though the place was huge, it was hard to move around because of the crowd.

This is one side of the complex. The place is massive!

Some guardians

Me, in front of some shiny building. It's probably important, but mostly it's pretty.

A diligent guard in front of the actual place.

              We napped in our rooms for the rest of the afternoon. When we woke up, we went out for a dinner of stir fry and pina coladas. The food was good, but didn`t have as much of a kick as usual. Or maybe, I was finally adjusting to the level of spice. Not likely! Our laundry was still drying, but looked like it would be done by tomorrow. Tomorrow`s plans included getting to the other side of town, exploring the Jim Thompson House, and shopping..