Sunday, October 24

I had a four day weekend, and was able to explore some different activities in the city, as case numbers continue to decline and the strict Covid restrictions start to ease. I feel like we're starting to discover a little more of what Bangkok has to offer, and that's pretty exciting. 

Shall we look at it day-by-day?

Thursday
I decided to walk to Khlong Toei market and almost died. Kidding. Kinda.

The market is about a two mile walk from our condo—which is a bit of a long walk for Bangkok during the day, but I left somewhat early in the morning, and the day wasn’t supposed to get too hot. I decided to walk through Benjakitti Park, one of the biggest parks in Bangkok (which I still hadn’t checked out). I knew there was a risk I wouldn’t be able to exit from the other side—because of the pandemic, they will often only keep 1-2 park gates open so they can control temperature checks, etc. But at that point I was still cool and full of energy and it didn’t seem like a big deal if I had to turn around. 

The park was very carefully maintained, but lovely—there’s a giant man-made pool, lots of foot paths, flowers, and pretty trees.

And I saw some creatures…

Monitor lizard

Turtle on the rocks

But when I reached the far end of the long, rectangular park, I realized all the exits were are closed. A security guard waved me in the direction I came in—far on the side of the park. By that point, I was getting hot, and I hadn’t brought any water with me, because my water bottle sprung a leak and there’s always (almost always!) a 7-Eleven close by. I took a seat on a bench and took off my mask, and sweat just started pouring off me. My head was pounding and I felt a little queasy, but I also felt a strong urge to get up and get out of the park and find water. I forced myself to sit on that bench for at least ten minutes. Eventually, my heart rate slowed and I felt a little less like dying. Then I made my way back the long journey to the park entrance, this time taking it very slowly. 

I hopped on a motorcycle taxi (driven by the rare female driver) to the market, where I picked up some water and a chocolate milk at the 7-Eleven, before venturing in.

It was my first time at the market by myself. I had been a little intimated by the prospect, but at this point we have a lot of favorite vendors, so it wasn’t too hard to find what I wanted. Being by myself also meant I could take my time and snap some photos…

Fruit and flowers

Green eggplants and some mystery vegetables

Packages of dried fish

Woman with chili paste

Neatly laid-out fish

Vendor arranging the fish

Pickled vegetables

Frogs--skin-on and skin-off

Octopus and squid

Neatly stacked fruit

A kitten sleeping inside the vendor's display of rice noodles

Back at home, I laid out my bounty: napa cabbage, greens, pineapple, baby corn, red onions, duck eggs, orange peppers, tofu, shrimp and some small whole fish, peeled garlic cloves, wheat noodles, limes, enoki mushrooms, apples, and some shu mai for lunch.

I bought the whole fish on impulse, because the small, skinny bodies made me think of mackerel, which I like, but I had no idea what it was or how to cook it. Here's a better view of the fish:

All told, the whole haul came to less than $18.

In the afternoon, I swam in the pool, Roman brought some coconut shakes home for us, and we got massages at the nearby massage parlor. 

I made the fish for dinner—I decided to just treat them like any small fish, and I gutted them, rubbed them in oil and salt, and grilled them whole on the grill pan. I had a lot of doubts while I was doing it—I kept thinking of Top Chef episodes where contestants neglected to remove a bloodline from a certain type of fish, or didn't know that you can't eat the skin on some specific kind of animal, but I figure they probably wouldn't sell toxic fish at the market (never mind the whole gingko nuts thing), so I forged ahead. And they came out well!

Grilled fish on sticky rice and stir-fried morning glory, with chili lime garlic sauce

They tasted a lot like fresh grilled sardines, but they had a ton of pin bones, which made eating them a pain. I sent Martin a picture of the fish, and we think they are mostly likely Atlantic Needlefish, which are, happily, considered edible.

Friday
On Friday we eat doughnuts. But it was a holiday and our doughnut guy with his cart near the train tracks wasn’t there! So instead we picked up some sweet custard-filled bao and fried purple sweet potato balls, fried bananas, and sesame balls.

We did not eat it all but we still ate too much.

Museums are open again in Bangkok, so we decided to check out the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center, a giant free museum/event space/public gathering spot in central Bangkok.

It’s a vast, white space structured around a long curving walkway.

The building houses several small shops and eateries, including an ice cream shop with bars in the shape of a Siberian Husky, or a cat wearing a mouse hat.

We wandered the different levels and saw some art we weren’t crazy about, and some art we liked…

We walked into a gallery featuring the senior theses of art students from a Bangkok University. It was kind of amazing—much of the art was very earnest and trying very hard to Say Something Important:

Some of it I actually liked…

We had lunch at a busy sushi spot near Siam…

And we checked out the area around the BACC...

In the evening, we went to Pala, a Roman pizzeria recommended to us by Nico, a French-Italian guy we met at the Shambhala meditation center.

 

Delicious pizza…

Saturday
I recently got onto Bumble BFF (a dating app with a mode for seeking friends) to try and connect with people in Bangkok, and on Saturday, a woman I met, Pang, invited me to go wakeboarding with a few of her friends.

I was a little nervous about the whole thing—it was a ways outside of Bangkok proper, which meant I had to take a taxi, so I didn’t feel quite as mobile & independent as I usually do. And I wasn’t sure if it would be awkward—me showing up as the one foreigner with a group of Thais. Also, I had never been wakeboarding before, and when I arrived and watched people gliding smoothly across the man-made lake, I felt a little intimidated.

But it ended up being totally fun and laid back. Pang and her two friends were very sweet, and helped get me set up and (marginally) trained by a staff who didn’t speak much English.

But I was still very nervous as I got ready for my turn to wakeboard  I squatted down on a board with the rope handle gripped tightly in my hands, my stomach knotted, until it was my turn to go. Then one of the instructors gave my board a firm push as the rope started to pull me out into water. I made it maybe 20 feet into the water, and then started tipping backwards…and then fell straight back into the lake.

The part of the lake where everyone enters

My second attempt was much less frightening, but no more successful. It was the same with the third attempt, and the fourth. I started to get frustrated…I was trying to follow the advice of the instructors (don’t lean back, don’t pull on the rope) and sometimes, when I first got out onto the lake, I would seem to get my balance…and then I’d inevitably tip over within a few seconds. 

After my fourth or fifth attempt, Pang's friend suggested I try kneeboarding. I got a quick training, and then I was kneeling on a board, leaning forward, my elbows locked tight at my sides, ready to be thrust into the water. And this time I actually got out onto to lake! I made it about 3/4 of the way around, and then totally ate it on the notoriously hardest curve—I tumbled into the water, didn’t know which way was up, ingested a ton of lake water, and was just grateful I was wearing a life jacket and helmet.

The second time around, I started to learn how to steer the wakeboard before I fell off on the hard curve, and the third time I made it around the entire lake! On that second lap, I fell off at the hard curve again, but my arms were kind of limp noodles by then, so steering had again become difficult.

I spent my time between rounds feeling happily tired, or talking with Pang and her friends, or chilling on the pier, watching the wakeboarders go by.

In the evening, I met up with Roman near Soi 4, and we went to La Monita Taqueria for delicious tacos.

Sunday
After my Sunday morning family Zoom chat, Roman and I headed out to the Pariwat Temple, which is also known as the Cartoon Temple, or the David Beckham Temple. 

The temple makes many lists of unusual or quirky things to do in Bangkok, and I expected it to be entertaining, but I dind't realize it would be so beautiful—the outside walls were covered in intricate mosiacs, made up of painted pieces of cermaic or glass or pearl, all in vibrant pastel hues.

There were more statues of strange creatures than we could take in...

Lizard-headed creature, with monitor lizards

Check out the pistol

Shark-headed creature

Rabbit-headed creature, with rabbits

There were also lots of tinier statues—some of which were very familiar to us...

Inside the temple, there was a gold Buddha, as well as more wall murals (including one of Albert Einstein, though I didn't get a photo of that).

Behind this temple was a much larger, plainer temple. Inside of that, there was a large gold Buddha shrine...

And, at the every end of a row of figures holding up the shrine was...David Beckham (though I'd never have known it was supposed to be him if it weren't for the internet). 

David Beckham, far right

Around the side of the large temple, there were lots of places to make offerings, and at the back, there was a bunch of outdoor seating and a pier that stretched out onto the Chao Phraya. 

Little kid feeding the fish

I got some fish food and fed the catfish, and we walked out onto the pier to gaze at the famous Rama VIII Bridge. 

Rachel Tusler, far right

Happy but a little worn out from the heat and all the endless fascinating things to look, we made our way back to the neighborhood to eat a late lunch, then relax at home.