On Monday, December 13, we spent much too long at the the wifi cafe and then had a late lunch at the Nepali/Burmese tea place. Then we went on a great walk through the markets to On Nut, the last BTS stop after Phra Khanong, to which we'd never been. We heard there were cool markets there and had noticed all the tents on our way of town, but it turned out to be mostly Western-style clothes and accessories, and we were soon disinterested . After making a regrettable stop at McDonald's for the soft serve ice cream that Lacey and I had been craving, we took the sky train back past Phra Khanong to Nana, which never fails to get a certain refrain stuck in my head, and it's bustling night market. While certainly busy, Nana's market was also very commercialized and touristy. We did however accidentally wander into what appeared to be Bangkok's Little Middle East, lined with sisha bars and restaurants representing most West Asian countries. We decided on an Omani restaurant for dinner and were served absolutely delicious eggplant paste (like a hummus), with a naan-like bread, falafel, and Turkish coffee by our waiter from Mumbai. It was so good.
Tuesday, December 14.
Another awesome day in Bangkok. We got up early to get to the Grand Palace before the crowds and heat set in, as had been recommended to us, only to find that it didn't open for visitors until 8:30 anyway, and by that time there was a bit of a line and it was mighty warm. We saw pretty much everything that was open for viewing--the miniature Angkor Wat, the Emerald Buddha, lots of other Buddhas, and a museum of Thai coins and royal regalia through the years. But my favorite thing, without a doubt, was the story painted in a mural that wrapped around the entire "upper terrace" portion of the palace complex. It chronicled a story akin to India's Ramayana, and was painted in incredible detail with beautiful colors and intermittent gold leaf, and it covered the outer walls from floor to ceiling. While walking along from the mural's beginning, we heard beautiful chanting begin, so we followed the sound to the central temple which was filled with kneeling worshipers, singing from books or reciting from memory. From the palace, we got a taxi to Dusit Park, where we ran into some kind of temporary market fair with all sorts of craft goods and specialty foods. We found a popular stall for lunch and I ordered the only two veg dishes they had on rice. I'd never seen either before, and they were so delicious: one was some sort of radish, and the other was a sweet peanut dish that looked like baked beans. We walked out of the market with coconut ice cream on skewers in hand and found our way to the Vimanmek Mansion museum, to which our Grand Palace tickets granted us admission. If it wasn't already, this made it so worth the tickets' price. After wrapping ourselves in the required sarongs, we walked up the stairs into the queen's room--a small, octagonal room with an incredibly gorgeous chandelier taking up most of the ceiling and tapestries and other items along the walls. All of these were made using the stunning iridescent wings of emerald beetles, as well as gold threads and leaf. All of the beetles used have to have died a natural death, but I don't doubt they're all kept until their deaths just for that purpose. In any case, it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I think I could've stayed in that room for hours just admiring the ever-changing, magical color of those spectacular wings. From there, we walked into the main exhibition, housed in a huge room with a grand fresco ceiling. All around the room were amazing pieces of art that had been crafted by poor rural farmers that the Queen's SUPPORT Foundation had brought in and trained in these traditional Thai arts. There were amazingly intricate teak woodcarvings, howdahs, figurines, and other items of awesome metalwork incorporating more gold than I'd ever seen and more of those wondrous beetle wings. The last part of the exhibit was a display of Thai silk weaving and award-winning silk embroidery, all done by people trained through SUPPORT.
After getting back to Phra Khanong, we decided to pay another visit to the "Pad Thai guy" across the street, with whom we'd had our very first, late-night dinner in Bangkok. Then we brought a durian back to the apartment to decide once and for all if it was in fact tasty. I'm sorry to say, it just wasn't, So much so that we simply couldn't finish it and hoped it would still be good the next day when Matthew, who loves them, got home.
Wednesday the 15th was our final day in Thailand, most of which was spent wandering around the markets purchasing last minute items and soaking up our last--for now--of Phra Khanon's lively local scene. For breakfast, we found the delicious coconut and chive pods that we'd had on the coast in Trat. For lunch, I picked up some veggie noodle stuff in a bag and then we sat down at a busy little street place that we'd been meaning to try. One of the two women sitting next to us spoke really good English and helped us order, and then we continued to talk with her about what we were doing, etc. She was very cool. While Lacey and Austin ate some dish she'd recommended, the cook served me my best and cheapest Thai iced tea yet: the perfect one to end on.
That evening once Matthew got home, we went to a little restaurant on Soi 2. I had a delicious tomato and onion omelet and Matthew kindly treated us all to this last Thai dinner. Then we wandered up Soi 71 to find various fruits and snacks. We all tasted our second durian, which ended up being far more tolerable than the one we'd mustered the courage to try the day before. For Thailand's "king of fruits," it's awfully stinky, but I think I could come to like it after all.
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