4th additional episode of Bangkok days and nights

22nd/23rd June 2006
Thai things first: dinner was salmon steaks with various salad items and my favourite is fresh basil leaves, they leave such a clean refreshed feeling one one’s palate.
I almost forgot, Alice, Rosalind, and Sheila went for a foot massage after Alice and Rosalind returned from a bit of retail therapy. I had gone walkabout to take the pictures featured earlier.
Adam got home about 2210, I don’t know how he can constantly put in the hours that he does. We discussed the football match that was broadcast in Thailand at 0200, featuring Australia and Croatia, Rosalind and Alice felt they needed to go to bed as Alice had been traveling overnight the night before as her body/mind were still on Australian Easter Standard time.
I was about to try and get some rest before the match when Adam asked if I would like a game of chess. Well three games later, which modesty forbids me to mention the progressive score I announced that I really would have to try and get some sleep. Sheila and I went to bed about 0030, Adam saying that he would stay up and watch some Seinfeld DVDs until the match started when he would wake us. Adam assured us that he would set the alarm on his telephone so ensure that he would be woken in time if he fell asleep in front of the television.
Adam woke us at about 0231, he had fallen asleep and his alarm had been set for post-meridian not ante-meridian, but it was of no real consequence as we had at least got some rest and Australia had just been awarded a penalty that was converted to make it one all.
It was a very exciting match and when the Croatian saved a goal right on the line, Adam’s short lived joy scared the ‘beejabers’ out of Alice and Rosalind. Apparently Alice turned over and went back to sleep, but Rosalind decided that it was better to join in. It did not take more than a couple of minutes to change Rosalind’s demeanor from being a benign ‘sleepy head’ to a rabid fan abusing the referee.
We were on the edge of our seats until the last second and still don’t know what happened to Australia’s last goal as we could only get Thai commentary. But our guess was that the ref had blown full-time just before it was scored.
We were thrilled that Australia was through to the next round and in our post match analysis thought that Australia deserved to beat Croatia, though acknowledging that Croatia did play well in their games even if a couple of their players got ‘red carded’ (appropriately). I expect that at that stage they were ‘going for broke’ but I don’t think that should have been interpreted as breaking an Australia leg if they got the chance.
24th June 2006
Alice and Rosalind went shopping in the afternoon while Sheila and I did forty laps in the ground floor pool, followed by a facial for Sheila and a full body massage for me, which Sheila organised for me, while she was having a facial.
I was shown into a room in which there was a massage table and a very large shower cubicle in the corner. The lady who showed me in pointed to a couple of plastic wrapped items lying on the towels on the massage table, and then after saying a couple of words to me in Thai she left the room. I investigated the packages; one was a plastic shower cap and the other a pair of elasticated paper knickers. Having very short hair, (no 1 comb) I thought the shower cap was superfluous, but thought that perhaps I should don the paper knickers to save us both any embarrassment. I also decided that I would check out the shower before my massage so that I was not going to be another stinking farang. The shower was an interesting contraption with lots of levers and taps and I eventually found the correct combination to provide warm water. The three bottles of potions and lotions in a rack inside the shower stall were another challenge as they were labeled in Thai only. I resolved the dilemma by taking some from the bottle that was most empty believing that if I took the same as the majority of the customers I could not go far wrong. Half way through my shower the lady came back into the room and I said that I had not finished my shower and she retreated for another five minutes.
When she came back in I was lying face down on the massage table, the sort that have a hole into which you press your face enabling you to breath while they ‘beat the crap out of you’. I was then covered with a large towel and she commenced work on my legs and feet. My feet are quite large and I moved my feet outwards to relieve some of the pressure on my toes. My feet were firmly grabbed and turned back so that me feet were straight. I may not speak Thai but I got the message.
The next phase was her pushing down hard on my calf muscles, which meant that as my feet were pointing straight down there should have been no way in which my shins and thighs could be flat into the table. Well she found the way and I was sure that my knee caps were going to break as she used all of her weight to force them down. I was trying frantically to think of the words that meant ‘soft’ ‘soft’. The words that came to my mind sound like ‘bow-bow’ but then I was confused were these words Chinese or Thai and if I said them was there a possibility that ‘bow-bow’ meant harder or something even more unfortunate.
In the end I decided to grit my teeth and bare the pain hoping that she would move on quickly to other parts. Arms, stomach, head and neck followed in succession, but instead of relaxing I was concentrating on slowly moving my toes out to relieve the pressure on my kneecaps, hoping that she would not notice and slap me back into place. I remember some of the soothing music played in the background, but I have to say that overall it was not a relaxing experience this time. When I go next time I am going to ensure that they know that I prefer the Swedish style or ‘soft’ massage rather than the muscle torture of the Thai. I do not subscribe to belief that the relief and relaxation is enhanced when the pain stops; I do not like pain either as a giver or receiver!
We went out to dinner to celebrate Australia’s win over Croatia, progress to the next round, and the win against Italy (oops I hope that I did not put a moz on them).
Adam and Rosalind had made a booking at ‘Lord Jim’s’ restaurant in the Oriental Hotel, that has great cuisine and a breathtaking view over the Chao Praya river. Adam came home form work to pick us up and brought with him one of his Australian Associates from work, called, Jeremy. It was a bit ‘squeezy’ in the car with six of us, and the traffic was about par for Bangkok, when one added in the rain storms it made us about twelve minutes late, but this was no problem. The menu is a multiple dilemma: do I have an appetizer and or an entrée and will this leave room for a dessert and then the options within each course prompt the anguish of: hm that looks great, ah so does that, and that and that, “oh bother does someone have a pin?” After the selections were made a complimentary dish of shredded crab on pomello was provided and I was relieved to see my all time favourite arrive. Two large baskets of various types of very fresh bread rolls, I had an attack of the munchies by this time, and discretely (I think) sampled a range of the bread all were very different and excellent. My entrée was a mixture of fish and herbs of many types, the main involved a rack of lamb beautifully presented with vegetables prepared in very artistic ways. The main course was preceded by champagne sorbet The meal did ‘nod it’s head’ toward ‘nouvelle cuisine’ but we were all well satisfied with our meals and the very elegant wines that Adam had selected. We were of course some of the last patrons to leave as Adam suggested that we ‘repair to the Bamboo Bar’ the place to be spotted late at night at the Oriental Hotel. It was very smoky and crowded and I was relived that they could not find a table for six and I was keen to follow the suggestion that we take a table on the terrace on the banks of the river. It is a site that should appear on anyone’s list of ‘a hundred places to see before you die’. The river traffic is fascinating with many high speed ferries, covered in multi-coloured bright lights criss-crossing the river. Many of them look like huge golden dragons with fiery hi-lights on their scales. The temperature was balmy and we sat and soaked up the atmosphere and the (in our minds at least) elegant conversation. Soaked up, was a portent of things to come as three of the hotel staff rushed towards us urging us to move. I could not appreciate their urgency until a very large drop of water bathed my head. Yes they were correct the rain arrived by the tanker load, but we made it safely to the verandah and took up another table under the eaves of the hotel and proceeded to enjoy the ‘sound and light’ show as a huge thunderstorm performed in front of us. The few other guests on the verandah fled further into the hotel, but we of sterner stock stayed even though the rain was starting to blow in under the verandah and the circulating fans distributed the drops further afield. I perhaps should mention that being gentlemen we had allowed the ladies to take up their seats first and these were on the weather side of the table.
The hotel staff had donned south-westers and boots, and were busily covering the other tables and chairs with tarpaulins while the ‘gentlemen’ looked on with distain. I think it was Rosalind closely followed by Sheila who cried ‘uncle’, stating that the waves were starting to lap over their shoes. Sure enough as I looked under the table waves were lapping across the marble floor and crashing on the wall of the hotel behind us. The gentlemen agreed to safeguard the ladies Italian shoes and we moved to the Bamboo Bar, which had thinned out a lot and we had a large booth at the back. I was very pleased it was at the back as a Jazz group with a very fine American lady singer were taking advantage of the Thai belief that the only way amplifiers and speakers work is if they are cranked up to the max. My head felt like it was an extra amp and echo chamber and I expressed the need to ‘go home and get some sleep’. There is of course that hiatus as one tries to coordinate the departure with the completion of each and everyone’s drink and the one’s who ‘just have another while I wait for the others to finish’. At least the Jazz group did play some quieter numbers and then quit for a while finding that they could not compete with the performance from our end of the bar.
The weather was still deteriorating and Jeremy said that he would get a taxi to his home to save Adam the extra hassle. Amazing is perhaps a trite word, but one that I think is appropriate to describe the trip home. For much of the trip we were driving through flood waters nearly a metre high with the bow wave from the car washing back from shop walls against the side of the car. Rosalind assured us that the Volvo is waterproof and they had done this a number of times. But for me the amazing part was we were not alone, the streets were full of cars and motorbikes all going about their various business seemingly with no concern and as fast as the water resistance would allow them to go. I did spot some motorbikes that had stalled as the level of water caused the electrics to become inundated. I also noticed the ramp down to an underground car park. It had a small wall of sandbags stopping the tide from flowing into the car park and one security car nearby on a chair reading a book. An event like this in Australia would have made front page news for days and the emergency services would have been very apparent. It did not rate a mention in the media next day and was treated by all as nothing remarkable. Still I suppose that practice makes perfect and they get lots of practice. We could learn much about flood management I think, and was is appropriate response. I think it was about 0300 before we got to bed, this world cup football schedule is very punishing I think I should have trained more for stamina.
25th June 2006
After a late rise and later breakfast Adam asked if there was anything that we would like to do. I suggested Lumpini park. Adam said that he was happy to take us and Alice and Rosalind agreed to go as well, but Sheila thought that as it was a hot humid day she would stay at home in the air-conditioning and do some ironing and write some e-mails and postcards. In retrospect a wise decision.
Lumpini park is described by Carl Parkes of Moon travel handbooks as:
‘Bangkok’s oldest park, serves as one of the few green lungs for the congested city. Daytime heat empties the park (which is when we went), but early morning hours are an excellent time to watch the two categories of Lumpini fitness fanatics: traditionalists and modernists. The former, mostly older Thai folk, arrive at sunrise to practice the Chinese art of tai chi. (I don’t think we will actually ever get up in time to see them).
Designed to work the muscles in a slow motion kung fu, the ancient dance is now accompanied by portable stereos playing Chinese dirges or modern disco. Competing with the traditionalists are joggers who pound the pavement on a 2.5 km circuit. Kite flyers, soccer players and bodybuilders fill the park in the afternoon. This oasis is nestled off Rama IV road near Chulalongkorn University.’
I expect that you noticed the mention of kite flyers, this was my main reason for going I wanted to reconnoiter the airfield for the maiden flight of my kite (perhaps).
It is a very pleasant park with many exotic trees, a lake, with paddle boats (shaped like white swans) and a path that winds its way around and through the park. The aspects that interested me the most were first of all watching a game of net takraw, which is played almost exactly like volleyball without hands, and the ball is about six inches in diameter and is a hollow ball made of woven bamboo. The contortions that deliver overhead serves and foot spikes demonstrate an amazing degree of flexibility, dexterity and acrobatic skill. The players in the two teams that we watched were in their forties or fifties; this made me feel tired so we moved on to what fascinated me. These were wild monitors either swimming in the lake or lying on the muddy banks created recently by dredging of the lake. In all I saw six with five of them being at least two metres long. They looked to me exactly like the Komodo Dragons on Flores Island in Indonesia, though I guess a little smaller. But for me it was great to see these wild ‘prehistoric’ creatures in the middle of a city of 15 million people. We wandered around the 2.5 km circuit past the outdoor gym with little Thai ‘pocket rockets’ pumping iron. They were not very tall, but they had so many well developed muscles I am sure that they had ‘muscles on their spit’. It was hot and humid, even Adam and Rosalind commenting on how uncomfortable it was. Everyone was pleased to get back to the air-conditioning of the car.
Adam and Rosalind took us for lunch to one of their favourite lunch spots called ‘Kuppa’.
I will not go all Thai ad explain the meals in detail sufficient to say that I decided to be ‘good’ and have the soup of the day that was tomato and some garlic bread. The waiter who took my order assured me that and order of soup came with garlic bread. I thanked him for his assurance and insisted that I would still like some additional garlic bread. When my soup arrived, it was delicious; it was accompanied by one very small slice of garlic bread. Ha, I have been deceived in the past and now the same deception was being tried again and I was not to be fooled. It was with great relief and satisfaction that I made room on the table, and in my stomach, for the huge basket of additional slices of garlic bread. Ah the joys of experience, hindsight and foresight. It was a good lunch enjoyed by all and on the way home Rosalind did some shopping so that Adam could make a cheesecake for dessert while Rosalind made a mushroom risotto.
It was an excellent dinner, followed by some storm watching and then television watching.
Another late night, first of all a Seinfeld marathon, Adam has many boxes DVDs that contain all of the Seinfeld episodes to date. Prior to this Sheila and I had never watched a Seinfeld program, after about thirty episodes I feel that I know all of the characters very well. After the DVDs we watched the qualifying laps from Saturday’s Montreal formula one GP; followed by the England Ecuador football match and then the entire Montreal GP. The viewing was occasionally interrupted by breaks in the broadcasting as the satellite dish searched for a stronger signal. The cause of the problem was yet another very big thunderstorm with massive displays of sheet lightning.
26th June 2006
I was going to say that it was another day of late rising and late breakfast, but lateness implies a time after what is considered normal, so all I will say is that we rose at the normal time and after breakfast Adam went to work and Sheila asked me if I would change some currency if I was going for my walk. I was happy to do that and checked with Rosalind if there was anything I could get for her while I was out. There being nothing I took some leftover risotto from the fridge for my Soi dog friends.
As I left the entrance to the building one of the dogs came over to see me and had a sniff of the risotto. His big brown eyes looked at me with distain and bemusement. He turned his back and walked away. Another of the dogs came over and nudged some of the risotto to the ground, looked into my eyes and walked away. The security guard from the building opposite picked up a small stick and poking it into the bushes dislodged another of the dogs telling it to come and see me. Some more sniffing and little tasting and then it was expelled onto the ground and the dog wandered away. I looked at the guard and said “it would appear that they do not like farang food”. I am sure that he only understood the word ‘farang’ foreigner, but got the gist of what I was trying to say and just smiled. I will just have to make sure it is meat or chicken next time.
I went to the bank and saw the same lady who had changed some money for me previously and I tried to be very careful about putting the exchanged currency into a safe quarantined part of my wallet with the certificate with the exchange rate etc so that Sheila could do her mandatory checks when I got back.
On the way back I thought that I would buy a Bangkok Post, newspaper. It cost 25 baht, and as I looked for a small denomination note in my usual part of my wallet. I looked in vain for a 500 baht note that had been there when I had left the apartment. “Oh bother”, I said to myself, I wonder where it could be. I convinced myself that I must have mixed it up with the other money I had changed so I decided to retrace my steps to the bank , stand at a counter and re-check how much I had received in the exchange and find my 500 baht note mixed into it. Back in the bank in was nice and cool and I carefully unwrapped my parcel of notes and coins and checked the contents. All of the exchanged notes and coins were accounted for but there was no rogue 500 baht note amongst them. “Goodness me whatever could have happened” I murmured under my breath, well close to that anyway. On a wild impulse I staggered to the lady who had served me and tried to explain that I thought I might have dropped a 500 baht note when I had left the bank earlier. The young lady seemed to know only one English word and that is ‘passport’, but she gestured to an older ‘young’ man to come and talk with me. He listened patiently and then shouted across to another older man at the other side of the bank, as he took out a 500 baht note and gave it to me. I said my ‘thank-you’ and ‘goodbye’ in Thai to all of the staff and most of the customers as I retreated from the bank feeling very pleased and relieved. I bought a paper on the way home and also tried to get an English version of ‘Finding Nemo’ for Rosalind, but the only ones I could get were rental only or in Thai. In this suburb they cater for the Thai people not tourists and that is one of the reasons that I like wandering around in an area where there are not many foreigners like me.
Rosalind took Alice shopping as Alice is returning to Australia in the early morning and wanted to get a couple of bargain watches to take back. Sheila and I went to the gym, Sheila for Pilates machine masochism while I went for a swim.
Sheila is getting great benefit from Pilates her knees and back free from pain and she is feeling much more resilient to the heat humidity and moving around. I saw Adam in the gym as I was getting ready to leave and he suggested that Khun Boon Chuay, his driver take us home and then return to pick Adam up and take him to an appointment with the boys from the office to watch the Australia Italy game.
Khun Noy had prepared dinner for us, it is a dish called Haw mahk (a guess) which is individual portions of salmon mousse in ‘ramekins’ made of banana leaves. It is accompanied by fresh vegetables and is of course another of my ‘all-time‘ favourites. I favour the ‘See-food diet’, what I see is what I eat. Sheila and I waited until 2000 for Rosalind and Alice but could hold out no longer and had just finished our meal when they got back from shopping. Their delays were of course traffic and also a forty five minute campaign in the bar of the Banyan Tree hotel trying to get their bill for a couple of drinks.
The game, our exit from the World Cup football, I will not go through all of our reactions as they have been mimicked by many people many times over since, but we did go through all the gamut of emotions from Ah, Bug, Chr, Dam, Egh through to ZZZ when we finally got to sleep. We surfaced at the normal time and I had a short post-mortem with Adam before he left for work; Rosalind did not surface until late afternoon as she had not got to bed until after midnight, shared Adam’s post match analysis at 0200 and then took Alice to the airport at 0430. Sheila spent the morning reading while I caught up with this journal and helped Khun Noy disassemble and store the spare bed. I will go out later and get a copy of the Bangkok Post again as we enjoyed catching up with some world news.