The Dalager Experiment: Bangkok Fabulous!

[Not to be confused with Bangkok Dangerous, starring Nicholas Cage]

We just returned from a wonderful week+ vacation to Thailand over the Chinese New Year, and I'm not even sure how to begin to describe it! Everyday was so jam-packed, but I will not subject you to a play-by-play. Instead, with Jacob's help, I'm going to attempt a Top Ten list of our experiences in Bangkok, and save our time in Phuket for another blog...

Bangkok FABULOUS
Top ~~Ten~~ Twelve (Hey, we tried!)

12. Erawan Shrine - We happened across the shrine, located on a busy city corner beneath a skytrain hub. The shrine is to the Hindu God Phra Phrom (Brahma), though it seems that it is worshipers included Hindus and Buddhists (Thailand is mostly Buddhist). All around the shrine there were vendors selling flowers and foods to present as offerings, and the shrine was heaped with offerings. On one side, there was a troupe of traditional Thai dancers, whom people hired to dance and sing in thanks for answered prayers. And surrounding all this, the stampedes of traffic and shoppers...

As people gave offerings of food and flowers, workers moved
around the shrine dumping old offerings into the garbage!

The other end of the Tin Shed appeared
to be an auto repair shop!

11. Tin Shed Dinner & Nana - While in Bangkok, we met up with an American friend of one of our housemates. She showed us around some of the busy mall areas, then brought us to one of her favorite spots for dinner, nicknamed the Tin Shed among her and her friends. It was similar to Singaporean hawker centres, only a bit grittier. But the food was amazing!! Hard to believe they cooked such a variety of amazing food - cashew chicken, sweet & sour fish, raw shrimp salad, curry, and lots of others - such a spare and open kitchen! The prices were great too - the 3 of us feasted for less than $20. Afterwards, Ashley took us to Nana, the 'Gogo Bar' area of Thailand (ok, redlight district). We checked out a cowboy bar and took turns riding the mechanical bull, though the place was pretty quiet on a Sunday night. (Though there was definitely some business being done...wowza).

The remnants - and of course, Thailand's own Chang Beer!

Despite being fake, this bull gave me a huge bruise!

10. Dinner Cruise on Chao Phraya - We took a lovely evening cruise up and down the main river, seeing many of the beautiful temples and palaces lit up. We had a buffet dinner on board - some good food, some decent - but my favorite was the dessert, specifically the chocolate salami! Yeah, basically salami composed entirely of chocolate. Our table, outside at the front of the boat, were perfect, and we enjoyed the ride and sites, accompanied by some quality karaoke sung by the Thai singers on board. Breathtaking. And yeah, they played My Heart Will Go On. Of course.

We also got glowstick bracelets.

Rama VIII Bridge

Wat Arun all lit up!

On our dizzying tuk-tuk ride to Chinatown

9. Transportation - Bangkok has an unbelievable variety of modes of transportation for the non-auto-ed visitor. Metered taxis, skytrain, subway, river taxi, tuk-tuk, bus, motorbike taxi - and we made use of most of these! Far and away, the

Pretty tuk-tuks in front of What Phra Kaew

Mom, Dad, note the helmet!

motorbike taxis were the most fun - totally exciting, totally terrifying, and guaranteed to bring you closer to your God, a ride on one of these means you can zip around the traffic-bound cars, occasionally driving in the wrong lane or ducking out of the way of side mirrors. The cooling trickles of panic-sweat are refreshing too! Tuk-tuks, motorized versions of older versions, are quite fun also - brightly painted, lit up and open air, the lurching ride is pretty fun, if exhaust filled. The cheapest, coolest way to travel is usually a metered taxi (be sure to ask for the meter, or they may try to overcharge you). And the fastest transport was probably the water taxi, so long as you were close to the river - and you bypass all the traffic!

8. Thai Massage - Amazing, and amazingly cheap. There are hundreds of places offering Thai massage, dozens alone in the main back-packer area around Khao San road. We found a place called 'Thai Massage in a Garden' and for less than $18, we both got an hour long Thai massage and I got an extra half hour of foot reflexology. At this place, they had tents set up outdoors with fans blowing on the tables and ambient sounds of birds and water. They start by having you change into comfy, baggy pants and shirts, then wash your feet and begin. Thai massage is no joke - they literally walk all over you! It was pretty fantastic though :) We didn't get any pictures, but this is a picture of Jacob afterwards...

Someone looks relaxed...

7. Street Food - Anyone who knows us knows we love food. And, to borrow a phrase from the Sporkful (a great podcast), we're Eaters, not Foodies. Far from being snobbish about the food we eat, we revel in getting to experience a wide - if at times disgusting - range of food! The street food options in Bangkok were phenom - from watching a lady prepare Pad Thai from a little cart on the street, to eating beneath the skytrain tracks, to downing fried dough in Chinatown, we ate well. And you have to love a place where it is not at all strange to buy a whole coconut and drink out of it with straws! My insane husband even ate a fried SCORPION on a stick! We have video, but no pictures so I'll try to get that up later. Jacob has grown increasingly fond of taking awkward food photos of me - so here are a few of the best from our trip.

Fried dough covered in green coconut syrup.

Pad Thai!

Getting that mango!

Coconut! Coconut! (-Harry Belafonte)

"Spicy Mama" from the kitchen
pictured on the left.

Kitchens come in all shapes and sizes!

Our last meal in Bangkok, beneath the skytrain.

I had the safe chicken rice - Jacob had pig's organ soup.

You can see the people climbing up!

6. Wat Arun - Wat Arun is a beautiful Buddhist temple right across the river from the Grand Palace. We took a river taxi across and walked around the grounds - where we happened upon a free lunch provided by the temple (donations appreciated, but no pressure). We then climbed the steep stairs up the temple - these were serious steps and actually pretty dangerous, but it was a great view.

Going down was probably the scarier part.

Actually in a picture together!

I love the striking faces of these statues!

5. Chatuchek Market - HUGE weekend market selling, oh, everything. Clothes, shoes, souvenirs, art, electronics, food, flowers, statues, decorations, medicines, styrofoam, wood, bags, umbrellas, pet supplies, pottery, cutlery, fabric - puppies! PUPPIES! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of them! This place was an overwhelming maze, but really awesome. Good advice we received: if you find something you like, either buy it right or way or make a good mental map of where you are because once you leave a store, you're unlikely to find it again! We came away with a beautiful fabric painting and a candle holder with a Buddha statue, as well as a mini tuk-tuk made out of a Chang beer can (Jacob couldn't resist). We spent hours here, and could have stayed longer (though we probably would have spent all our money and had to ship a lot of stuff back to Singapore!)

4. Muay Thai Boxing - For our last night in Bangkok, we couldn't resist going to see real live Muay Thai boxing. Bit of a saga getting there - I think we walked about 3 extra miles - but it was really cool. Fights consist of 5 rounds of 3 minutes each and 4 judges award points for various blows. Called the 'Art of 8 Weapons' (fists, feet, knees, elbows), it is really exciting. To our surprise, the first several fights were fought by what looked to be children! They were probably 15, as that is the minimum age, but they looked 10! The early rounds were interesting, but the later rounds got really exciting, with 3 technical knock-outs in the last 5 fights! Also interesting were the rituals before the fight - each fighter wore a special headdress and flowers around their necks, praying at various points in the ring and doing a sort of dance. The ritual and actual fights were accompanied by traditional music - but to our untrained ears, it sounds like a really squeaky oboe with drums and rather incessant cymbals. The overall effect of the music really pumped you up though!

3. Meditation Class - When we arrived at Wat Arun and were searching for some food (before finding the free lunch!) we saw a sign about a free meditation class later that afternoon. Ashley, Jacob and I ended up being the only attendees at the class led by Hatanto. Originally from Indonesia, Hatanto was first a business man before becoming a monk and spending three months alone on a desolate island. Now, though no longer a monk, he runs a charity that takes in young hill-tribe women and helps them get nursing degrees so that they can support themselves. This helps to prevent human trafficking, as young rural women are often at risk.
For the first hour the class, he basically gave an overview of Buddhist philosophy and discussed the purpose and practice of meditation. We didn't actually meditate, but learned a lot about Buddhism. He asked some really tough questions too! After that discussion, he told us more about the charity and his life. All three of us came away with new knowledge and perhaps slightly more enlightened. It was one of those gems of an experience that comes into your path and rewards you for taking the opportunity. Travel seems to be full of these opportunities, which is perhaps what makes it so wonderful.

2. Wat Phra Kaew - Within the walls of the Grand Palace is Wat Phra Kaew, a huge temple (set of temples?), including the main building which houses a famous Jade Buddha. The scale and ornateness of this place was breathtaking. To enter the grounds, you must be dressed appropriately, including covering your elbows and knees, and to enter the temples you must remove your shoes. I think the pictures speak for themselves...

Fierce guards!

Every inch of the buildings is decorated.

I love the serenity of this statue.

The walls of the Grand Palace were covered in paintings
telling stories about the lives of various kings.

Grand Palace (Unfortunately you can't go in!)

The complex also has a model of Ankor Wat,
Cambodia's famous temple.

Couldn't resist taking and sharing this picture...tourists :)

Tourists....

Our master chef

Look at those ingredients! Beautiful!

1. Silom Thai Cooking School - Lonely Planet sure steered us right on this one! On our first afternoon we took a 3.5 hour cooking class which included a trip to the market to learn about various Thai ingredients (and how to spot them next time we go to the market ourselves) and then the preparation and consumption of a five course meal! We began by cooking Tom Yum Gung - a spicy soup with shrimp - which included making our own coconut milk/cream. Then we mastered Pad Thai - and learned why Thais rarely cook this food themselves (tons of ingredients, mostly spices!). Our teacher then showed us how to prepare Northern Chicken Salad (add lots of cilantro!) before our class worked together to pound out some Green Curry Paste in a huge mortar and pestle - which we then cooked with chicken. Mmm green curry's my jam! We ended the meal with 'rubies in coconut milk.' The rubies are chunks of turnips soaked in red syrup, then covered in tapioca starch and boiled until they get sort of transparent and shiny. Toss them in a dish of sweet coconut milk and you've got a delicious dessert! We were so impressed by the cooking school - the whole class ran so smoothly and the chefs were so funny and skilled at their jobs!