Thailand - Hans, Bugs, Prostitutes & Pool
Trip Start
Nov 18, 2009
1
25
26
Trip End
Dec 26, 2009
Bangkok, Thailand
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
So, last time we wrote, we were about to leave for Thailand.
We were picked up early-morning by a jumbo tuk-tuk and taken to the bus station where we boarded for Ubon Ratchathani. A nice, leisurely four hour trip – Ophelia didn't sleep but Jonas did. I caught up on some more of my book and Kythera napped a little. Woke up as we went over the border and did all of our immigration stuff. As Australians, we don’t have to pay for visas in Thailand (providing our visit isn’t longer than 15 days) so that was a good thing. Got back on the bus and headed to Ubon.
Ubon is very strange. We took a tuk-tuk to a Tesco’s! And had KFC for lunch! And bought tissues and stuffed toys! It was like being back home for a short couple of hours.
At about 5.30 we got back to our travel agent to pick up our bags. Travel agent turns to us and says, "you have to pay for children on train." No, we say, our kids are young and share with us. “You still have to pay.” How much? He quotes some price off the top of his head. “No. We’ll go to the train station and deal with it there.” He takes us huffy foreigners to the train station where we confirm that we don’t have to pay for the kids, and that our travel agent was trying to get more money from us. Bought a couple of beers, some sticky rice and settled into our first-class overnight train cabin. So luxurious! Beds were better than the Pakse Hotel!
Got into Bangkok at approx 5.30am. Picked up a taxi and asked them to take us to Hans’ house. Well, we gave his address, we didn’t just get into a cab and say “take me to Hans’s!”
Met Hans (me and kids for the first time, Kythera for the first time in 10 years) and his wife Fern and kids, Anakin and Anikka. They live in a three-storey apartment and have a maid.
Went out to get certain staples from the supermarket (Tim-tams, avocado, weetbix, baked beans), which involved a 2 hour round trip on a boat and skytrain.
Spent the day relaxing and I went for a massage, Thai-style (walking on my back etc). Awesome. Had a nice dinner of spaghetti bolognaise after an afternoon nap and left the kids with Hans and went out for a night on our own to the Night Market. An enjoyable night out, a couple of beers in the beer garden and a nice, relaxing foot massage. Also bought a couple of things.
Next morning, we went out and checked out the Grand Palace. This place is seriously fantastic. It’s intense and incredible. There was also the Palace of the Emerald Buddha (really made out of Jade and stolen from Laos) and a model of Angkor Wat (we’ve seen the real thing!). Amazing place though. They have soldier guards everywhere who stand stock-still like beefeaters. I took a photo with one and then said thank you in Thai… but got it backwards. Normally: Korp Kun. Me: Kun Korp. You Thank. Made him giggle. Best photo ever!
Went by boat supposedly towards home. Got on the wrong one and ended up going the wrong way. Got off. Ophelia and Jonas got popcorn given to them by a monk. We found a Dunkin’ Donuts. We splurged on Dunkin’ Donuts. Found the right boat. Got home.
We left the kids with the maid and went out for dinner with Hans and Fern to a place called Makro. It’s a “make-your-own-noodle-soup” place. You grab all the ingredients and collectively cook it in a big cooking pot in the middle of the table. Fun food and great conversation from Hans (Fern can’t speak English).
Sunday found us heading out to Chantuthak Weekend Market. That place is intense. It fills up with tourists sooooo quickly. We bought a couple things and looked at a lot of other things (I found a Thailand soccer shirt! And a Blackburn Rovers one!)… I wanted to buy a Thai guitar but couldn’t take it with me. :(
Decided to find a McDonald’s for lunch and spoil the kids. Got taken to a KFC. Got into another taxi and asked for McDonald’s. Took us all over town til we found one. Ahhhh a Big Mac. Although in Thailand they have double Big Macs, so of course I had to eat that.
After lunch, got a cab to the train station to organize our tickets back into Laos. Tried to get a cab back to Hans’. No-one would take us. Walked to the subway, got on an amazingly clean subway to a Skytrain station and got off somewhere near Han’s place. Walked back. Took 25 minutes. Turns out it was not really near Hans’ place.
Fern made an amazing coconut chicken curry for dinner. We were really tired from our trip so we all went to bed quite early.
The next day, we decided to take the kids to a playground. We took the boat ferry to a Skytrain station and got to this massive shopping mall. It was like Chadstone. Found a Kids Space-style playground and let the kids run riot. Kythera and I had a couple of goes at that basketball hoop shoot game. Fun.
Don’t hate us. We had Burger King for lunch. It makes me feel so bad writing that now.
Caught a cab back to Hans’ and relaxed for the rest of the day. The kids went to bed early so we went out on the town with Hans.
Firstly, I bought about 30 Baht worth of various bugs (cockroaches, worms, maggots, cicadas, and other insects) sprinkled with soy sauce. Yummy. One of my "must-do" things on this trip, now ticked off.
Hans took us to a pool place and promptly beat us out of approximately $10. Which doesn’t sound like much, but when you convert it to Baht, it works out to be about 12 straight games.
He took us to a nice Arabian restaurant and we had some amazing naan, baba ganoosh and other yummy stuff.
We then walked around the neighbourhood, watching all the prostitutes haggle with prospective customers, looking at all the Thai girls out to find a farang sugar daddy, and of course the American guy in the striped shirt whose Thai wife sold his house and stole all of his money and who now lives on the steps of some hotel because he hasn’t got enough money to go home. A strange night in Bangkok’s seedy underbelly.
Next day saw us rushing around doing final day things (sending lifejackets home, packing, exchanging money) and saying our goodbyes to Hans and his family. Got onto the second-class sleeper train which is open plan (and a lot of fun and very comfortable), ready to head back to Laos overnight.
Kythera checked her wallet as the train started pulling out of the station. $250 missing. Realised that Hans’ maid must have taken it when we were out this afternoon changing money (and when the kids were asleep in the same room). Fuck! This left a bad taste in our mouths. Other than that, we had an amazing time in Bangkok.
So long, Thailand. It’s been real!
