DID: Today was perfection (in my book anyway.) Had three missions for the day: 1. go to the pool if sunny, 2. Jason to pick a tailor and get an order in, 3. buy a new memory card for the camera. All accomplished, and in the meantime discovered shopping and eating heaven in Siam Square.
Started with breakfast on our terrace followed by a couple hours at the pool, all in gorgeous sunshine. (Hot but not too hot, humid but not sticky). While I was at the pool with GnR, Jason went back to the area we’d been Thursday night to seek out a tailor.
Rhys tried to further his mission to put the ‘poo’ in ‘pool’, luckily I caught him in the act before any real mess was made. And now that we’ve been through this before, Gavin and I were cool and slick as we whisked Rhys off to the locker room. But of course there was one little hiccup. After everything was cleaned up (and Rhys poo-ed on the toilet – yay!!) my efforts to covertly dispose of a soiled towel went a bit awry. I waited for the pool attendant to turn his back and then tossed the towel into the bin for used towels. Except when I looked back later I saw that the dirty bin had actually been moved and the bin I’d thrown our towel into held the clean towels that he was folding and stacking for people to use!! Oops.
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| Pool time! |
Jason ruled out the tailors he visited but still had one more to check out. He also returned bearing treats – goldfish crackers and Cheetos. We can’t even get those in Sydney, might have to stuff a few bags in the suitcase!
Set off in the direction of lunch and the last tailor on the list. This tailor had all the right stuff for Jason – order placed, done. The walk had us heading towards Siam Square, decided to continue along that path because we’d read that the MBK (where we’d eaten Thursday night) was “the place” to buy cameras/accessories. Lots to look at along the way - ornate buildings, street vendors with gorgeous smelling food, tuk tuks and vespas whizzing around in very heavy traffic, even some kind of religious ceremony with traditional dancing, costumes and a whole lot of incense. As we approached the Siam metro station (or Skytrain, as they call it), started to see alleyways filled with market stalls and boutiques. We turned into Soi 4 and walked away with a handmade pair of dress shoes for Jason and a couple of tops for me. AND we came across our favorite dessert place from Chiang Mai – Mango Tango – at the end of Soi 5. Even better, it was across the road from a restaurant that looked like a great candidate for dinner.
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| Top tailor |
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| 150, 2-ply Japanese cotton, no less! |
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| In prayer fashion |
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| Soi 4 Shopping |
Wove through the markets and finally made our way into MBK Centre. Sort of a cross between a regular mall and an indoor market. Sellers not aggressive like in China, nor would they negotiate very much, but the prices were very reasonable anyway. Camera world on the 5th floor and Thai handicrafts on the 6th. Ticked quite a few things off the list including a Thai flag sticker for Gavin’s suitcase, a few souvenirs (my favorite being a Christmas ornament that’s a small tuk tuk made from a coke can), and most importantly the SD cards for the camera. AND, it turns out the SD cards we bought in China are not worthless after all. The guy at the camera store told us they just are incompatible (and too fancy for!) our camera. So new lesson learned – read the package before you buy anything at the Pearl Market (or anywhere else). J
Wandered back towards Mango Tango and the restaurant for dinner, Jason found a pair of flip flops and we had to tear Rhys away from a pair of crocs shaped like tiger paws (they were only $3 and I would have bought them but I know the second he would start running he would fall over because of the funny shape). Shops were in shut down mode at 8.30 – I think our plan for here will be to eat a late-ish lunch and hold off on dinner until 8.30 or 9 once everything is closed.
Much to Gavin’s dismay we took the Skytrain back to the hotel after dinner/dessert (traffic was still too bad to consider road transport). All day long he had been asking to take either a taxi or tuk tuk – he just did NOT want to walk. Maybe he’s coming down with something, he ended up sleeping in the stroller for two hours at least, maybe even three.
Collapsed in hotel room.
Perfect day, done.
ATE: Breakfast pastries and fresh squeezed watermelon juice from café in hotel lobby. Mine was a mango Danish that weighed at least a kilo. Boys all had chocolate croissants.
Snack 1: goldfish crackers and Cheetos from grocery store near hotel
Lunch: Pleonchit Restaurant in Wave Place (skytrain stop: Pleon Chit). We all tried something new! Gavin and Jason went with Set Meal B – fried chicken, fried sticky rice (sticky rice mixed with peas and corn, rolled and fried to look like a spring roll without the wrapper), and fried bananas with honey. I had Set Meal C – spicy grilled beef salad (strips of beef wrapped in cabbage leaves with green beans, raw basil and chili sauce), papaya salad, sticky rice and fried bananas. But before they served us my meal, they’d served us someone else’s meal by mistake. (We didn’t realize it because it resembled the meal I was supposed to get.) So we ate that one too – grilled beef over vermicelli noodles in a spicy sauce and papaya salad. Jason said this meal was Vietnamese style – if true, it’s a promise of very good things to come! All the meals came with fresh juice – Jason had lemongrass and Gavin and I had golden apple. Apple juice was different than what we’re used to – sweetened with cane sugar and cinnamon. Good stuff.
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| Pleonchit Restaurant |
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| My 'bonus' meal |
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| Fried Chicken |
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| My 'real' meal (once I remembered to take the photo) |
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| Fried bananas |
Snack 2: Japanese soft serve ice cream for GnR, found at Sato Soft on Soi 4 in Siam Square.
Snack 3: Green tea with tapioca bubbles for Jason, although I think Rhys drank the majority of it. From Looan Herma on Soi 5 in Siam Square.
Dinner: Ban Khun Mae, across from Mango Tango/Soi 5 (Restaurant is on Soi 8). Starter of chicken satay (can’t believe it’s taken us this long to try it!) Jason had green curry with chicken, Gavin and Rhys ate pad see ew chicken, I had spicy grilled pork salad (dressing was fire water). Love, love, love this restaurant, except they really should do something about the eau de toilet at the entrance (smells in the dining room are nothing short of delightful).
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| Ban Khun Mae Restaurant |
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| Chicken with peanut butter sauce (aka satay) |
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| Green curry chicken |
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| Pork salad |
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| Pad see ew |
Dessert: Where else but Mango Tango? Have to say I preferred the rice at the Chiang Mai branch, but the mango here was unreal. I’m suggesting to Jason that, along with a Japanese ramen restaurant (with vending machine ordering system of course!) he should bring Mango Tango to Sydney. It’s a winning combo, I know it!!!
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| Mango Tango Sundae - 2 rice balls and a mango |
SLEPT: Fine, but internet situation at the hotel stinks. They get away with saying ‘free wifi’ on their website by offering 1 free hour to guests per stay. Due to some technical difficulties with the connection in our room, Jason was able to talk them into giving us 1 free day, but looks like we’ll be paying after that. Boo.
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