I would very much appreciate it if someone could explain to the Thai the it is perfectly acceptable for them to not really want pedestrians on the roads. I would much prefer not to be there either. I can cope with pedestrian crossings being ignored and I have learnt to just close my eyes, hang on to Martyn and blindly put one foot in front of the other. I also understand that they need to fill the pavements with stalls and markets so I may have to occassionally walk on the road. It is a bit much however when I survive the roads only to be nearly mown down by the mopeds and scooters on the one bit of pavement I've managed to find that I can walk on. It was bad enough in Japan being mown down by bicycles on the pavement but these scooters are a nightmare. I understand why they do it though - no room on the roads, 6 lane highways jam packed. The noise, the fumes.........where oh where is my rainforest gone?
Today we ventured further afield. Don't want to overdo the temples in the first week so headed off to find modern Bangkok. Walked for two hours along river, skirting Chinatown and Riverside. Must have managed to find every Bangkok equivalent of Edgeware and Tottenham Court Road combined along with those backstreet dens that look more like an untidy garage than a shop. They had every radio controlled toy imaginable, serial connectors, transformers, PCBs and lots of men at the side of the road with soldering irons. Eventually came across central train station. Decided had done enough walking being as we were still only half way there on map so got on subway train to LumpyKnee park. It is obviously not spelt like that, actually it is Lumpini Park but if you emphasise the 'knee' and make the 'y' short then Lumpyknee is how you say it. See my Thai is improving! Managed to be understood with my 'hello' today as well - things are looking up!
Three stops on train saw us at park, went up top to discover beautiful park had been turned into pile of rubble. Turned around and found park was opposite the building site we were staring at! Walked through park and found one of those fitness areas we last came across in Japan so had to have a play on the machines....and then up road a bit further to Skytrain station. Took Skytrain weaving through skyscrapers to Siam Paragon - largest shopping mall in SE Asia apparently, has a posh car dealership on the 2nd floor along with numerous other very posh hi-fi shops etc which Martyn enjoyed looking at.
Down to foodcourt for lunch. You have to buy a sort of credit card which you load up with money and then take to the food stalls to pay with - saves the chefs handling money and dealing with change and actually meant there were not any queues to pay - all very efficient. Martyn had chicken curry which I think had maybe had been waved over a curry plant at some point. I had thai red curry and am still trying to find my head after it was blown off.......very nice though. Although possibly a little too spicy for my usual tastes. It is customary here to leave a little rice on your plate to indicate satiation. Well I apologise profusely but every grain of rice not coated in sauce was needed to attempt to calm my shrieking taste buds.
The rice sort of worked but I still needed some help so we headed for the ice cream parlour - which was not Thai and therefore disappointing but was cheap and chocolatey and came with a wafer and considerably improved the oral situation I was experiencing. Much relief. Martyn is I think still laughing at me.
Back on Skytrain after lunch to go to the much less exclusive MBK mall at which Martyn enjoyed floor 3 (I think) well, until I experienced a 'divide by ten error' and worked out a mobile phone was 3000 pounds. This was an honest mistake and not a tactic to get him to leave earlier - honest!
Left MBK and wandered along to Jim Thompsons house. Good ol' Jim was in the American OSS around the time of 2nd World War. In 1945 he was due to parachute in to an area of Thailand but on flight was told war was over so turned around. Ended up in Bangkok at some point, decided he liked it, stayed and was instrumental in re-developing and commercialising the Thai silk industry. He also rescued and renovated 6 traditional Thai style teak houses and filled them with Burmese, Chinese and Thai art work so that was all interesting to see. Then he went on holiday to Malaysia when he was 61, left his friend asleep in hut, went for walk and was never seen again. No trace of him was ever found. Big Mystery!
Walked back along canal for a bit and then through more busy highways and expressways and traffic to nice, quiet, peaceful sanctuary of hostel!
Oh and so far have discovered 5 names for Bangkok: Bangkok (obviously); the Big Mango (no idea on that one); Venice of the East (which after today I fully get, so many little bridges and canals etc); the Thai name for Bangkok (which is very long) and City of Angles (which is what the shortened version of the Thai name means - personally I think its just because there must be a crowd of Angles looking over anyone who tries to cross a road here!)
Non Angli sed angeli, maybe?
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