Weekends in Thailand

So Angel and I made an unofficial agreement to spend every other weekend doing something in or around Bangkok. There’s so much to do in Bangkok that we want to make sure we don’t spend all of our time traveling and forget to dive into the local culture. The first 2 weekends of this agreement led to our trip to the Grand Palace, the Floating Market, and then to Phuket. Angel wrote about the Grand Palace so I’ll write about the others

As instructed, we woke up early on Sunday to head to the Damnoensaduak Floating Market. Our driver and his son picked us up at 845 and the journey. It took us about an hour to get there and we parked at one of the boat renter’s place that actually had a restroom. To our dismay (especially Angel’s), their definition of a toilet is basically a hole in the ground. You have to buy your toilet paper or bring your own (luckily we were prepared).  To rent a boat and driver to take us to the floating market cost 2000 baht (~$70) for the whole boat, which I guess isn’t that bad. It was pretty much the only choice we had though since that’s where our driver took us and we didn’t know anywhere else. So, we paid the money and hopped in the boat. As we traveled along the river, we went from just us and a couple other boats to several boats in the water at once. The market itself was impressive because you could pretty much buy anything that could fit in a boat. I’m not sure how good a business model it is to have a shop there though because there are at least 10 other shops selling the exact same things. You would think that it’s good for the buyer, but you can still easily get hustled if you don’t know how to negotiate. In retrospect, it’s probably best to go to a couple places before you settle on one.  Negotiating is tricky because the shop owners will always say no first to whatever your offer is. The typical conversation goes something like this..

 “Me: I like that little trinket, how much is it? Owner: This one is very nice I give you special price 400 baht. Me: 400 baht??!! I’ll give you 100. Owner: No, no way, cannot go lower. 400 baht lowest price. Me: I’ll give you 150 Owner: Ok, I give to you for 250 baht. Best Price. Final. Me: I’ll give you 180. Owner: No, cannot. Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase. 250 baht. Me: No thank you, I am leaving. Owner: Ok, Ok! 200 baht for you. Me: Ok”

It’s fairly similar to our experience when we went to Mexico and I imagine it’s similar in any tourist destination. The biggest difference to me is that if you walk away after your initial offer the owners will let you leave, they always start about 50% over what is a reasonable price, and they beg! The begging thing caught me off guard the first time but I wasn’t gonna let them fool me twice. Anywho, the trip to the floating market all in all was a good time. We picked up some nice things and we had fun doing it. My personal favorite part was on the way back. We hadn’t eaten lunch and we wanted chicken and rice, so my driver stopped in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road at an old lady and her husband with a stove and a covered eating area. It was sketchy to say the least, but they had a little tv with the pacquiou fight on and they were extremely nice. The meal cost us about 5 bucks total after tip and it was delicious. Neither of us has gotten sick so I count that as a successful stop.

Upon returning to Bangkok, we made plans to go to church. This time we decided to try a Catholic church called Holy Redeemer. We learned from our past mistakes and had our driver drop us off. The most surprising thing about the church was that upon arriving we could see people flooding in from all sides. There were no stained glass windows on the side of the church. Instead, they had huge doors where the windows would be and they had all of the doors open. I searched the ceiling but I’m pretty sure there was no air conditioning unit, which meant that we were depending on the breeze outside and the 30+ fans that were blowing air all around. It was actually not that hot but the humidity prevented the fans from making it cold. The priest had a great and powerful sermon. He spoke about the fact that people put so much emphasis on the holiness of the church and the traditions but that we forget that it’s equally important for the people in the church to be holy. He shared a story of a priest who resigned from his church because although the members came to confession and followed the rules, they would not lift a hand to help an old couple whose house was falling down. This message resonated with me quite a bit. I also thought the whole atmosphere was nice and the people were generally very nice. The church was full of people of all different backgrounds. Probably the biggest blessing was that Angel met a lady who was a member of the Thailand Habitat for Humanity Chapter.

This past weekend (June 15-17) was our weekend to leave Bangkok, so we scheduled a flight to visit Phuket. Angel did most of the booking, but I was very happy to find that for a fairly low price we were staying at a beachside resort named Duangjitt. My cheapness actually saved us some money because instead of paying the 2200 baht that the hotel wanted us to pay for them to pick us up, we ended up getting a ride on a shuttle for 200 baht. Once we took the hour long shuttle ride to Patong Beach, we used Friday as a travel day and pretty much crashed as soon as we got to our room. The hotel was nice and the staff had made a heart on the bed to welcome us because Angel put “honeymoon” in the notes. Saturday morning after our free breakfast, we headed to the beach. The water was not as blue-green as we expected, but there were some hills/mountains in the background that more than made up for it. For 7 bucks we rented 2 chairs and an umbrella for the day and it was time to chill. After a couple good hours of relaxing, I decided to negotiate a 5 minute parasail for myself and a 30 minute jet ski ride for 2 for 80 bucks.

The parasailing was a fun first, even though there was a man with his feet on the ropes just above me directing the parachute and I didn’t go very far or high off the ground. Just flying through the wind and enjoying the elevated view was well worth it. For the landing, the man actually wrapped his legs around me from the back as he steered the parachute to the ground. It was definitely not a safe activity for him but I enjoyed it.  I got bored after about 20 minutes of jet skiing and we decided to head in for a nap. Our nap ended up lasting well into the evening and by the time we hit the streets for dinner it was after 8pm. After passing expensive restaurant after expensive restaurant on Beach Street, we settled on a pizza place that was also expensive. However, the pizza hit the spot and we left full and satisfied. We were beginning to be a little worried that the party district that we read about online was not existent in Platong, but after dinner we walked a little farther, turned the corner, and BAM! There it was, Bangla street! The best way to describe it is slightly cleaner than Bourbon street, a lot more shops and strip clubs than sixth street, and lights like Vegas blvd.

 It had just about everything you could get in trouble doing at night. There must’ve been 100 guys and girls inviting us to a “Ping Pong” show, which I was initially excited to see since I’m fond of table tennis and I assumed it would be some sort of special ping pong tricks. However, after looking at the catalog, I realized that this ping pong show they were referring to had nothing to do with table tennis. It was our first night out in Thailand and we had a really good time. We listened to some live music from a Korean looking band seeing American pop music. We met a couple that was in the US NAVY who were both a lot drunker than we were, we stopped by one club and started the dance floor to hopping, and we had a short but romantic walk along the beach on the way back. It was Definitely a good day.

Sunday we were pretty tired so we slept in and then decided to visit the hotel pool. It was the biggest pool I’ve ever seen. It was more a baby lake than anything, but the water was clean and refreshing. After we hopped out of the pool we pretty much only had time to shower and catch a taxi to the airport. This time I did have to pay the 650 baht that everyone was charging.

All in all, we’ve certainly enjoyed our weekends here so fare and we’ve added a return trip to Phuket to see the James Bond Islands to our already lengthy list of things that we “must do” over the next year. Until next time, Sawadee Kap!