Going out with a bang!

Today was our last day in Bangkok.  In case we don't make it back to this city again, we did our best to revisit some of our favorite things one last time...

• Soymilk cappuccinos from a frequently visited street-side coffee stand (we provide our own soymilk).

• Fresh fruit du jour from the market on On Nut Rd (today was durian, pineapple, and bananas).

• Omelettes with hot sauce on rice from the Tesco across the street (the egg lady seems to have disappeared).

• A trip up Sukhumvit on the local bus (open-air bus in one direction and A/C bus in the other direction).

• One last swim workout in the 25 meter pool at Benjasiri Park.

• Freshly-squeezed pomegranate juice from a street vendor just south of the park.

• Strolled down Sukhumvit Road.

• One hour-long massage each (Todd had an herbal massage, and I had a traditional Thai massage - both of which were awesome).

• A smorgasbord of street vendorThai food for dinner:  crab cake, pad thai, fried mix vegetable salad with shrimp, mystery meat summer roll, etc.

• Our last bottles of Thai beer (we splurged on Leo today, but typically we've been consuming Chang).

Whirled Peas

Being that we are both pro-world peace, and being that the world peace lighting ceremony happened to be happening in the park where our pool is located, we joined in the festivities after our swim workout.

We might be even bigger supporters of world peace after our zenning in the park :)

What's not to like?

We have spent the better portion of our trip indulging ourselves.  From foods, to massages, to pool sessions in the park... we are definitely living it up!  

Each morning, we start our day by leaving the hotel and making our way to the other side of Sukhumvit Road in search of breakfast.  Inevitably, we make our first stop at "the egg lady", or so Kristina calls her.  At her street stall, we get one fried egg mixed with our choice of whatever veg she has that day (usually carrots, onions, chilis, and either mushrooms or greens) on a plate of rice with a small bag of hot sauce for 20 THB ($0.60).  Once we have our egg in hand, we walk a few blocks to our favorite street where Todd pays 20-25 THB for a cappuccino or Thai Coffee (whichever is available that day).  We finish up our breakfast run by making our way over to Sukhumvit 77 for fresh pre-cut up fruit (usually papaya, pineapple, jabong, and bananas) and whatever other goodies catch our eye.  We have no idea what the thing in the lower left is... some sort of dumpling filled with dates or fruit and nuts?

On our way to and from the pool, we do our best to sample all that is available along the streets.  Kristina's new favorite thing is fresh pomegranate juice for 40 THB ($1.25).

Please note the omnipresent King Rama IX in the background... he's everywhere and has reigned since June 1946!  He''s the longest reigning monarch in Thai history.

Once the sun begins to set, we begin our search for a massage parlor.  More often than not, we end up at our favorite hole-in the wall near our hotel where the masseuses' hands are bigger and stronger than Todd's and an hour session (neck and back, or foot or thai) costs 150 THB ($4.50). 

After our hour-long pampering session and coated with menthol oil, we roam the streets in our area for more food.  Among the usuals are pad thai, green papaya salad, curry, and more fruit!

What's not to like... or LOVE about this city?

Break from Bangkok ... in Bangkok

After a day of searching, 5 miles of walking, a medical certificate from a clinic (which was not easy to find), a copy of our passports, two 1-inch photos each and 40 THB each, we are now members of a pool.  It's a 25 meter outdoor pool in the middle of Benjasiri Park next to the Phrom Phong BTS station.  Now that we are members, we pay 15 THB ($0.50) each per use and more often than not, get the pool to ourselves.

A few odd things:  swim caps are "required" but it seems that they are only required for tourists, swim caps are super expensive ~$8 USD, the pool is open in increments of 1.5 hours, the water has a bit of a soft slimy feeling, shoes of any kind are not allowed in the building.  All that being said, we love our pool and have used it twice already.  

p.s. I (Kristina) swam my 1st 50 meter no-breather in this pool!  Here I am celebrating my two laps...Wahoo!

Back again in BKK

Without fail, everyone we talk to seems to be less than impressed with Bangkok.  When we explain that we are flying into Thailand and staying in the city for a week their faces go sour and their response is usually "really?" or "why?".  Most people warn us that a few days in Bangkok is enough and in many ways, we can understand why this city would not be high on everyone's list.  The streets smell of a mixture of fish sauce, urine, dirt, and exhaust.  Most of the structures/buildings are rundown (or beginning to fall down).  The power lines are a spiderweb of low hanging wires that obstruct any potentially appealing views.  Prices vary by day, time, mood, skin color, etc.  When asking for directions, one is bound to have one person point to the left and another person point to the right regarding the same location; third and fourth opinions are a good idea.

All that being said, we love this city.  Bangkok is a place where we can buy bags of chopped pineapple, papaya, dragon fruit and durian for $1.  It's a city where the street food is better (and significantly cheaper) than most restaurants.  Where the mystery meats look and smell so mouth-watering while roasting on their bbqs that you disregard the fact that it could be rat or dog, and order up anyways.  It's a culture of people that will take 20 minutes out of their day to walk us from the BTS (skytrain) to the "small bus" to make sure that we don't get lost.  It's a place where we can pay 7 THB ($0.25 USD) to catch a ride on a "small bus" which is actually the back of a pick-up truck with monkey bars on the sides for safety to take us to our destination.  

Maybe the reason we love the city so much is because we stay outside of the bustling city center and therefore, get a more authentic Thai experience.  Maybe it's because we love Thai food and massages.  Regardless, underneath the somewhat unsightly and seedy exterior of this city we've found some things that we absolutely love and that entertain us to no end.

Things we learned in BKK

Things we learned in Bangkok:

1. Electrical outlets accept American style plugs.

2. It is cheaper to eat out than to cook at home.

3. Always ask the price of food before it’s ordered, otherwise, the price goes up.

4. Watching feet for uneven sidewalks and heads for hanging wires is essential.

5. It's not necessary to pay more than 100 THB for a traditional Thai massage… the more expensive traditional Thai massage is not any better than the cheaper one. "Oil Massage" is an entirely different story...(see previous blog!)

6. Bedding (sheets or linens) is insanely expensive.

7. Pad Thai is not always easy to come by. When it is available, the default is to make it with small shrimps.

8. Fruit from the street carts is a great purchase! It’s cheaper than a supermarket and it’s all cut up and prepared.

9. There is a great 25 meter public pool at a fitness center called Juta. It is located on Sukhumvit 77 near Soi 46. The price is 80 THB ($2.75 USD) per day to swim and like many things in Bangkok, it can’t be found on the internet. It is open every day and even though there are no lane lines and many people seem to believe it’s a good idea to swim across the pool, it’s not too hard to get a decent swim in.

10. Gyms are ridiculously expensive, so it’s best to find an apartment with any kind of “gym/fitness center”.

11. There is definitely a dark side to Bangkok but it can be avoided.

12. There are a million different modes of transport (BTS skytrain, underground metro, air conditioned buses, regular buses, taxi trucks, taxis, motorbike taxis, tuk-tuks, and long-tailed boats). The BTS and metro are by far the easiest to use because they have maps in the stations. The buses are a bit more confusing because it’s never really clear where they go but if you have time and don't mind getting lost, they are incredibly cheap (sometimes 6 baht to get you miles!). The taxi trucks are frequent and cheap for rides straight down main side streets. We rarely rode motorbike taxis, tuk-tuks or long-tailed boats. And, frequently, the regular taxis are the best option as long as it is not a peak traffic time.

13. Second-hand shoes, which have been cleaned and repaired, can be found in street shops for good prices. Todd bought a pair of Converse which he is very happy with.

Thai MASSAGE?

Before coming to Thailand, we had both heard stories and had our suspicions (but had no first hand knowledge) of Thai massage- pun unknowingly apt.  In the interest of science, we diligently researched multiple locations and modalities together.  After weeks of investigation at great personal sacrifice, we finally had a breakthrough on our last night in Bangkok.  Kristina had had enough massage and stayed home while Todd felt obligated to continue his investigation and tried his first "oil massage" at one of the twenty massage parlors within 1km of our apartment.  His sheepish look when he returned an hour and a half later indicated that this experience was different for one reason or another.  We are not certain if it was the venue, the "oil massage", or the fact that Todd was alone, but it was beyond evident that this massage was FULL body by default.  The inadvertent brushes against Todd's good-bits ultimately proved too frequent and too deliberate and caused Todd to request no further massage of that particular area and obliged Todd to explain his love for Kristina.  In the end, there was oil everywhere and a slightly confused masseuse who gave Todd a discounted price.

Bangkok is definitely flooded

During our last few days in Bangkok, we ventured north to the popular Chatuchak weekend market where we finally encountered our first flood waters.  Some of the streets surrounding the market were so full of water that cars and buses were being diverted although a few motorbikes, trucks and pedestrians braved the waters and created large wakes:

The market itself was flooded in some areas which resulted in a very limited attendance.

So much food... so little time

With the end of our stay in Thailand near, we are doing our best to get our fill of the amazing food available:

Noodle Soup

Duck with Noodles

Veggie Stir-fry w/ rice

We still don't know what this was... egg (ish)

Dragon fruit

Papaya Salad

Tom Yum Soup

Fruit juice made purely with fruit and ice (the best is passion fruit, banana and kiwi)

Dragon Eyes

Loy Krathong festival

During the last few days, we have heard noises resembling gunshots and car backfires. Sometimes, the noises have been only a few minutes apart and other times hours would go by before another blast was audible. It was a bit unnerving, especially when one would occur near us.

Yesterday, we finally figured out that the noises were fireworks and that they were for the Loy Krathong festival. Also known as Yipeng, the festival was celebrated to 1) give thanks to Mae Kong Kha (the ancient water goddess) for the rainy season, and 2) honor the Buddha’s top-knot, which he cut off when he became an ascetic. Normally, thousands of candles are floated down rivers and canals in lotus-leaf boats however the government requested that each family only release one candle boat in fear that the lit candles may find their way into someone’s flooded home and possibly catch fire.

As happy as we are to be a part of the celebration, we will be very happy once the firework blasts are finished.

We've discovered Thai buffet!

'We know that buffet restaurants are located all over the city, however since the one that we stumbled upon on Sukhumvit 77 was well off the beaten path (near On Nut Soi 25), we felt as though we were the first tourists to ever dine there. If we weren’t, we were at least the first haoles the local people attending that night had ever seen there. Once we picked a table and sat down (we recommend sitting at a table beneath a fan) we were brought an interesting looking grill-device, which had a trough filled with water. Given no further direction, we went to the buffet line and gave the contents a once over. I found a do-it-yourself papaya salad station to occupy my time, while Todd hunted and gathered fixings for the grill/soup cooker: 

After successfully cooking and enjoying our very tasty soup, we had a plethora of fruit, cookies, and jello to choose from for dessert:

We were also very lucky that night because it happened to be karaoke! Todd was overjoyed especially since the singers seemed to favor old American “hit” songs. 

After great food (some of the healthiest we’ve eaten since we’ve been here) and interesting entertainment, we only ended up 240THB ($7 USD) lighter!!!

More news on the Bangkok flooding

While our area of Sukhumvit 77 still remains dry, the floods have continued to spread further into the city.

Here are a few local newspapers from yesterday (Nov. 7) whose front pages describe our city's situation: 

The Bangkok Post quoted the Governor of Bangkok saying he estimates that flood waters will be drained from all main roads in the city center in about 2 weeks thanks to the Flood Relief Operations Command sending 24 pumps to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. The pumps are thought to double the capacity to drain Eastern Bangkok of its flood waters. 

With recovery from the flooding and our work prospects looking unlikely in the near future, we have just purchased one-way tickets to Bali, Indonesia for Tuesday of next week!  We plan on eating LOTS of good cheap spicy food before we leave and getting at least a massage a day :)  We are also hoping to fit in a bit of tourism within the week where flooding allows.

No flood in our area of Bangkok

We are back to our little neighborhood in Bangkok after a quick trip to Phuket (more on Phuket later) to avoid the flooding and high tide concern of last weekend.  The high tides and some irate residents of the city's outskirts intentionally damaging the flood barriers caused water to flood neighborhoods that had, until then, been protected.

Upon our return to our apartment near the On Nut BTS station, we observed that the panic here seems to have lessened and people have stopped stockpiling water and sandbags like they were last week.  While we remain dry, new areas of Bangkok continue to flood.  Today, flood waters have reached a major northern intersection, Lad Phrao, and are have also threatened some underground MRT rail stations.

From what we understand, the continued flooding is not because of rain that is presently falling; it is because rain that has fallen for months has been prevented from running it's natural course (straight through low-lying central Bangkok) to the sea.

Nevertheless, new areas are being threatened and flooded every day.  The famous Chatuchak weekend market is closed this weekend because it is under 40cm of water.  Through all of the mixed messages we are receiving, we can only gather "only time will tell...".

50-year flood forces flight

We have finally moved into our apartment in Phra Khanong, Bangkok.  Even before we came, we had heard that Thailand was suffering through it's worst floods in half a century.  All indications were that Bangkok, itself, would be spared the worst of it.  As it turns out, the combination of the built up flood waters in the north and the high tides of the next couple of days (which will not only prevent flood waters from draining to the sea but will also actually raise the level of water in canals and rivers) is possibly too much for the embankments surrounding the rivers to handle.  Here is worst case scenario prediction (we are in a dark blue zone close to a red zone):

http://newley.com/

Therefore, we are outta here!  Today we made a trek to Hua Lamphong train station where we purchased two tickets to Phuket, and island in the south, for tomorrow evening.  After considering taking everything we own with us to Phuket (in case Bangkok turns into a complete disaster zone and we can't return), we ultimately decided to leave some of our stuff in our apartment, especially since we have paid through November 22nd.

Part of the reason we decided on the hasty escape is that since we arrived, we have seen a couple of strange and worrisome things.  We have been to a supermarket every day and have never seen a bottled water available.  Just lots of empty shelves.  Toilet paper and non-perishable goods have also been hard to come by.  All in all, it seems the writing is on the wall... get out.

All this amidst the Eurozone financial crisis talks, the Turkish earthquake, and Gaddofi's death... what a world!

When in doubt... Pad Thai

There are so many bizarre and mysterious food options on the streets of Bangkok, that sometimes we just want something safe.  So, we find some pad thai:

On this particular evening we just pointed at an item on the menu which said pad thai completely unaware of what we were actually ordering.  After eating almost the entire plate, we were VERY surprised (and Kristina was quite unimpressed) to find tiny red shrimp creatures mixed into the food.

So, we have come to learn to point at things and wag our fingers at others.

BKK Flood Update

We have been living in Bangkok for almost a week now and have seen no flooding and hardly and rain.  It is almost hard to believe that there is a crisis going on at all.  However, storefronts all over the city are lined with sandbags and others (who can afford it) have a freshly laid concrete wall surrounding the building.

The news is full of videos and photos of flooded areas outside the center followed by warnings that flood waters are coming our way.

The reason that Bangkok's center has not yet experienced flooding (despite low elevations) is that the city has a 75.8km flood-wall lining the banks of the Chao Phraya River.  Additionally, the government built temporary walls around the city using sandbags.  Here is a map showing Bangkok's elevations and the walls (red lines) around the city:

http://bkkbaseface.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/bangkok-flood-elevation-map/

Because of these walls, the flood waters have been diverted from the city and have flooded areas surrounding the center which may otherwise have not flooded at all.

As of a few days ago, flood waters have began breaking down the temporary walls along the northern border of the city.  Here is a map showing the flooded zones in the northern parts of the city center (we live in the yellow area):

http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=3863141%3ABlogPost%3A793387&commentId=3863141%3AComment%3A795595&xg_source=activity

The government has finally decided to drain flood waters into the city center's canals in hopes that the water will then drain into the sea.  With the flood waters surging, some canals in the northern parts of the center have overflowed thus flooding the nearby areas.

The most recent news is that more water is flowing into the center than can be drained.  We are told that about 4,000 million cubic meters of water will reach Bangkok tomorrow and that City Hall can only drain about 400 million cubic meters of water per day.

So, Richard, to answer your question... no flooding for us yet....

Dinner for two for under $4

The food in Bangkok is insanely good... and cheap!  Unlike so many other countries we've visited, it is actually cheaper to eat out for every meal than it is to buy groceries and cook at home.  And, it's tons of fun to walk the streets and try unfamiliar foods from street vendors whose carts display delicious looking treats and emit mouth watering smells.

For dinner tonight, after the necessary plate of Pad Thai, we took a few dishes to go that looked too good to pass up:
The first was a bag full of salad fixings (lettuce, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, corn, kidney beans, pumpkin, sweet potato, and barley with papaya seed dressing) for 30 BHT or $0.97 USD.

Next was a fried round ball (whose contents we still are unsure of) that was mashed up with ginger bits, peanuts, onions, chili peppers, and other spices and other things served with leaves and cabbage as utensils.  This also cost 30 BHT.

And finally, for dessert, we treated ourselves to sticky rice topped with fresh mango and coconut milk for 60 BHT or $1.94 USD.

All told, for less than $4 USD, there are two very satisfied Americans bedding down in Bangkok tonight.