While Angel prefers to do her
blogging in more detail and on a day by day basis, I always prefer to write
summaries and hit the high points. Hopefully the mix of styles is pleasing to
read. I thought I should take some time to reflect on the week from Wednesday,
May 31 through Monday, June 4, since we really got around quite a bit and had
some interesting experiences. Next to the Tiger temple and elephant riding, the
thing that has had the biggest impact on me is the number of places to shop.
Since I hate shopping, this aspect of Thailand is amusing in thought but
torturous when I’m walking through the streets with Angel.
So looking back on Thursday the
31st, the most interesting thing was our first big argument in
Bangkok. It all started once I went to work in the morning to take care of some
HR business. Angel came with the driver to pick me up, we had some lunch,
checked out the park next to our hotel (which was huge but surprisingly empty.
We would find out later that that is unusual) and then we headed back to the
hotel. To be honest, I was exhausted. But my mentor had told me about the
racquet club where he remembered them playing basketball. We had about 30
minutes until our appointment to inventory the room so I asked the hotel where
it was. They showed me a map and it was a couple blocks over on the corner of
what looked to be two prominent streets. They told me if I walked fast I could
make it there in 10 minutes. So, I made a few mistakes. 1st, I
decided to try to make it there and back within 30 minutes. Secondly, I tried
to make it there and back within 30 minutes with Angel walking with me, not
acknowledging that her walking stride is half of mine at best. Finally, I
assumed that the big ass building and clearly marked streets they showed me on
the map would be a big ass building and clearly marked streets in real life. I
also didn’t realize how long one block on that freaking map was. 30 minutes
after we left the hotel (which was the time of our appointment), we were lost
and couldn’t find anyone to point us to the racquet club, Angel was pissed b/c
she didn’t want to go in the first place, and we were both sweating our asses
off. Finally, this nice Thai lady left her building and walked 3 blocks with us
to show us the racquetball club. When we go there, we met this very nice man
named Bruce who looked and sounded like the real life human version of Kermit
the frog. He showed us the half court they had with nobody on it and also
chatted with us for a while. Once he realized we had no idea where we were at,
he was nice enough to walk us over to a smoothie store and get the lady there
to tell our driver how to find us. He even bought Angel a bottle of water!
Either he was super nice or he really wanted us to join that expensive ass
racquet club.
On Friday, I started the day in
the office again. We realized that Angel didn’t have a cell phone and she would
probably need a way to contact me and the driver while I was at work. So, after
work, we headed over to Central Plaza at the suggestion of some co-workers.
This was the 3rd mall we had been to and like the others, it was
huge! It had at least 5 floors and there was a floor dedicated only to cell
phones and cell phone related stuff. There is the little hustler booths in the
middle and then the official stores around the outside. We went into 3 stores
with people who barely spoke English before being directed to another store
because we wanted a pay as you go phone. Unfortunately, nobody in the store
spoke a lick of English. After trying for about 30 minutes to get the lady to
explain to us how many minutes we would get with the Sim card and how much
additional minutes cost, we gave up and called our driver. It turns out he
doesn’t know how to say “minutes” in English either. Finally after about an
hour and a half total we just gave them 300 baht and told them to give us
whatever that would buy. Once we actually turned the phones on, she was able to
successfully show us how we could look up our balance and with some additional
effort she explained that we could recharge the sim card at one of the
thousands of 7/11’s in Bangkok. Form Central mall, we decided to buy a camera
for our Saturday trip. This time we gave MBK a shot. If Central mall is hectic,
MBK is 10 times worse!! It’s just a collection of little booths on every floor
with maybe 5 actual stores. With all these little shops, I would have expected
the electronics floor to have a whole lot of cheap stuff and discounts. To my
surprise, the cameras in every single booth were about as expensive as I would
pay in the US. So, instead of taking a chance of getting screwed at one of the
booths, we decided to dish out the cash and buy a nice Sony camera at the
“Powerbuy” store. It was definitely an experience though, trying and failing,
to haggle shop after shop to drop their prices. To close out the night, we
decided we would meet my boss for dinner at the hard rock café. When we got off
of the BTS at the SIAM exit, we saw just about the last thing I wanted to see,
another big ass mall!!! Luckily, we didn’t go inside this time. We scooted on
by and went across the street to the hard rock café. Although the food and
drinks were as expensive as they are everywhere else, it was pretty good and
the atmosphere was very enjoyable. Add the fact that we had company and they
paid made this easily one of my favorite meals in Bangkok to that point.
Sunday, we started off by trying
to find a good church to go to. There were a couple within a short distance
from the BTS but we chose Calvary Baptist since they had a website in English.
Even though the map showed one short street between the BTS stop and the
church, we ended up walking to the end of the street, catching a tuk-tuk back
to the other end, and then crossing to the next street only to walk back to the
end we were originally on. Needless to say, we were pretty frustrated and
sweaty by the time we got to the church, probably not the best attitude for the
occasion J.
I thought the service was pretty good. The pastor was intelligent and delivered
a heartfelt message about not bragging or being envious. But there was something
missing. Maybe it was the fact that we didn’t know anyone and didn’t really
identify anyone who we felt comfortable approaching after service or maybe it
was the fact that there weren’t any outside activities to get involved in to
meet some of the members. Or maybe it was just me being overcritical, but for
whatever reason I just didn’t feel “it”, and I am not sure we will be making
that our church home. After church, we decide to …, wait for it…….., go
shopping!!! By this point we were pretty broke and a bit tired, but my boss
ensured us that the JJ (or Chatuchuk or something like that) Market was an
event that we did not want to miss. I figured we’d hit an atm if we saw
something we liked, since they seem to be plentiful all over Bangkok. Boy was I
wrong!! I guess the good thing was that this market was outside so there was no
multiple floors to travel. The bad thing was that this was I’m pretty sure the
biggest flea market in the world. We walked for about an hour in one direction
along the edge and the market still didn’t end. Then we turned and went inside
only to find that we hadn’t even seen 1/10th of the all of the
booths. There was absolutely EVERYTHING being sold. If I had been a bit more
patient I probably could have figured out the system of which type of products
were being sold where, but I was so overwhelmed that I was ready to head for
the hills before even considering buying something. To make matters worse, the
least available thing in the market was restrooms and atm machines. By the time
we walked the country mile to find those, I was pooped. So, to Angel’s chagrin,
I put my foot down and we left without buying anything. Well, I take that back,
we did eat street food for the first time. We had some semi-cold fried chicken
that was pretty good. Maybe next week?
Monday, I realized that my hair
was nappy and out of control and I decided to follow up on my promise to let
Angel take a shot at cutting it. After researching on google, I found that I
could probably buy some clippers at a store called the Big C. So, we found the
closest one and jumped on the BTS to get there. This store was more like a
multi-level wal-mart than a mall. The big difference was that on several floors
there were little shops in the middle. After being redirected to the 3rd
floor then the 2nd floor then back to the 3rd floor, we
finally found the one set of clippers they had and I decided I wanted more
options. So, we decided to take a chance on the store that the locals were
calling pra –dee – num which we thought was the “Platinum” store that we could
see out the window. After the journey of crossing the street and walking for
what felt like forever, we finally got to platinum, only to find that it was a
high end clothing mall and that they information desk referred us back to the Big
C. After inquiring further, someone pointed further down the street to what we
figured was “Party Plaza”. When we finally arrived there, my jaw dropped as
again I was standing in the middle of a multilevel mall with thousands of
little booths selling everything from dog food to playstations. It just seems
impossible that there could be so many people trying to sell the same stuff in
such a small area. What is even more appalling is that each place is crowded
with people. The good thing was that I was able to find a good variety of
clippers. I settled on some Wahl clippers since I remember my barber using that
brand. Somehow Angel convinced me that
she needed to buy a curling iron too. After haggling with the clerk for a
while, I finally relented after she begged me to agree to her price and not
force her to go lower (you had to be there, but to see a boyish looking Thai
woman beg is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen). We took the clippers
home and Angel went to work. After 3 hours of fussing and fighting and cutting,
I had a haircut with a messed up edge up but at least even and presentable. After
all this vacationing, I could honestly say I was ready for a vacation from my
vacation.
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