Bangkok-a-doodle-do

Happy Mothers’ Day all and love and kisses to Tom and Joyce for all their love and care and support over all the years.

Bangkok is a feast for the senses, an olfactory overload. Jasmine, fish sauce, drain-lite, naptholene, 5-Spice powder, garbage-in-the-sun, frangipanis, incense, roast pork, charcoal, paraffin, roasting chestnuts, eye-stinging chilli.

We wander the streets (much to the chagrin of the tuktuk drivers who hoot & laugh at the distances we crazy geriatrics want to cover) open-mouthed at the fruits and vegetables that we’ve never seen before. Then there are the foods stalls offering for our delectation parts of beasts that I can only guess at and would never have presumed edible.

We see Charlie Chan Bronson everywhere – either CB did a lot of lovin’ here in Asia or else he’s been fibbing about his Polish Indian heritage.

Dinner last night at our favourite Asian Street food blogger’s (Mark Wiens) recommendation
T & K Seafood. We were so excited to be there amongst the bright lights of Chinatown that we forgot to take a photo.

Rubes in the Big City we gawped and gee-whizzed our way through the sights.

Taking our life into our hands we fearlessly ordered the oyster Omelette and you’ll be pleased to hear that we retain use of all our moveable parts today.
Today a lovely boat ride…

to Wat Po – famous for its reclining Buddha

The temple puts most of the other grand palaces and churches of the world to shame with its architecture, ornamentation and detail. It is several acres of temples, courtyards, fluted towers, passageways, statuaries, gardens, coconut ice cream sellers and fortune tellers. Demons, warriors, musicians, scholars, Karyatids, children, animals, pavilions, beautiful tiles, saffron monks, Buddhist’s chanting, sweeping sound waves of devotion, now all together, then the men drop out and the women continue, then after several beats all together again. Very compelling and emotional.

Just outside the Wat there is a park with an extraordinary fountain made up of cherubic boys and swans surrounded by sunflowers.

We took our hosts advice and wandered down Yaowarat Road looking for a legendary noodle place (like Chinese lasagna we were told) called Nai Lek. Alas, we couldn’t find it as all the hoardings were in Thai so….we scuttled back to T&K seafood for dinner again. Here it is, deep fried snapper with green herbs, squid in chilli sauce, cashew nut salad, lemon tea with ice. Yum, yum, all for about $35. A bit of a blow out, the first night there had been about $20.

Our lovely fellow diners were having blood cockles, grilled prawns and pea shoots with ginger and garlic.

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A one man Thai band in a bar doing a pretty passable version of Satchmo’s wonderful world. We wandered the streets last night looking for a joint called the soul bar and found it. Only a DJ unfortunately. The area around our hotel is brimming with little bars and cocktail joints, standing cheek to jowl beside coffin shops and mum and dad auto accessory outlets. Here is a coffin decorator.

Images of the King are everywhere. He is evidently an excellent King and is very much loved by the Thai people.

What trip to Asia would be complete without being preyed on by a tuk tuk driver ? Ours took us to several shops, each just a little cheaper than the last as it dawned on him that these Farangs weren’t buying.

We started off at a very high class tailors where we saw possibly the greatest dressing gown ever made ( a little rich for our tastes at over $200) and then slowly slid down the purchasing credibility pole until we found ourselves knocking back these beauties.

Despite our tight fistedness the driver evidently got several petrol vouchers out of it and a meal for taking us to a travel agent this morning.

Here is the lovely K posing in the tuk tuk whilst our Jehu partook of his morning noodle.

Fresh fields tomorrow as we leap onto a giant ibis bus to Siem Reap in Cambodia.