Bangkok, Thailand: China Town, Siam Malls, Patagon, and Dean and Deluca's

So, as we started to say yesterday, we had a surprising first evening in Bangkok. Som, E.P.'s friend, asked us to meet her at the BTS sky train station Chong Nonsi. Our hotel is on Sukhumvit street and very close to the Sky Train, not to mention we have a complimentary Tuk Tuk from the hotel to the station, so it was very easy to get meet her.

Dean & Deluca Christmas tree

She invited us to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Bangkok's Dean & Deluca. Neither of us being from New York City, we had no idea what it was, but it sounded interesting. Som has all the pictures from last night, so one day we will get them and upload them, but for now our descriptions will have to do.

The Christmas tree is gigantic, there was Christmas music playing, and a live band was playing Christmas music, too. Santa Claus sang a lot and he had a great voice! I took a picture with him - my first! - and he gave me a lollipop. :-)

There was tons of great champagne and wine, and loads of small sandwiches of all kinds, and some incredible looking desserts, all on the house, of course. We met the manager of the place, John, who is a friend of Som's (since she eats there every day), and he invited us to lunch today, so these pictures below are from today.

While we were at the party, Som asked us if we knew what couch surfing was. We said of course - we will be couch surfing in Australia and Japan! And before we knew it, we were at our first couch surfing meet up that took place in a nice non-touristy area. It was so much fun - I can't imagine our first evening in Bangkok being any better.

Dean & Deluca desserts - yum

After updating our blog last night and uploading some pictures, we sank into a marvelous bed, infinitely more comfortable than at the volunteer center (but no complaints!). This was, of course, after enjoying our first hot shower in a week and staring at the marvel that is a flushable toilet (after not seeing one for a week as well).

This morning we got a bit of a late start, since we weren't able to get a train ticket to Chiang Mai and will be taking a flight with Air Asia instead, so we needed to extend our hotel stay here by another night. We went for brunch(ish) at Dean & Deluca and then set off.

Dean & Deluca line and menu

About D&D: The place is magnificent. We got salads first, mostly because we were craving fresh vegetables after over a week of stir-fry and fried foods. Here's a tip: Everything at D&D is so great, skip the salad. Babies eat more when they're 3 weeks old. The portion was tiny. But we also ordered a sandwich later which was delicious and definitely a normal (not huge) sized portion. We also had a couple of desserts, cause we had to, and they were also wonderful.

Rony eating an opera cake at Dean and Deluca

Talia eating a coconut cake at Dean and Deluca

Then we were off. We walked over to Silom, which was not far away, and then walked down. We originally intended on taking a boat up the river to the Wat Pho Temple, but we could only find one-hour (and more) tours that were incredibly expensive, so we forewent the boat ride and walked through China Town.

Walking through Silom was great, but China Town was such an awesome experience! First of all, I got the cutest traditional Chinese outfit for less than $7 for my 2.5 year-old niece to wear as a costume (or whenever if she likes it). But the colors and the smells and the sounds were so wonderful. Though we have to mention that the air pollution took its toll on us and we had to escape into a mall to be able to breath for a while.

China Town - so clean

One of the biggest things we noticed about Bangkok - not just China Town - is that it is absolutely impossible to find a trash can. The funny part about this is that it's a very clean city - we rarely saw trash on the streets, and definitely monumentally less than we should have had there been trash cans.

Yum!

The stands through China Town had basically everything you could possibly think of - and some you really couldn't - but it gave us a preview of what to expect when we're in China. Every few feet you could also buy all kinds of fruit, which is awesome, but the most common is the pineapple. The pineapple here, as we learned at the volunteer center WFFT, is incredibly aromatic and full of juice. This is great when a human eats it, less great when an elephant splats the juice on you.

But I digress.

We love that we have the option to buy something small to eat on the street when we need a bit of sugar instead of having to give in to the really fattening and expensive options elsewhere.



Sidenote: There's Dairy Queen in Bangkok! How random is that?

Back to us.

We enjoyed walking through China Town (and Silom) so much, that before we knew it, it was almost 4 pm, and the temple was closed - it closes at 3:30 pm. So we did what any self-respecting person would do.

We went shopping.

We didn't actually get anything at the shopping center we went into, but it was so much fun to browse. After we got enough "fresh" air at the shopping center, we decided to take a bus back to the Sky Train, seeing as, for some reason, the Metro and Sky Train doesn't reach China Town, and a two-hour walk back was not an option.


Luckily, we plan ahead and we already knew what bus routes would take us to the Sky Train.

Not.

We had no idea how to get there, other than by foot. Fortunately, the Thai are incredibly friendly and helpful, and once we found a random bus station, a lovely lady pointed us in the direction of the station that we needed. Once there, we asked another Thai man which line we would need and he let us know. Not only that, but when a different line came by, he walked up to us to let us know that line would take us there, too. Wonderful man.

We got on the bus, that had like, one other tourist on there (it's a regular Bangkok bus), and instead of paying when you get on the bus, there is a lady whose sole job is to walk up and down the bus to charge people for the ride. It was very interesting.

This wonderful job is what allows the bus drivers to start driving with the doors still open and people still stepping up on the bus. Also, here's a tip: Bangkok bus drivers (not just the one we were on, we observed this on at least 5 other buses) do not feel the need to actually stop at the designated station. Anything withing 50 meters is fair game. So if you see a bus coming up that is the one you want, just start running towards it. The only time we saw buses actually stop at our station was when there was traffic, and even then they pretty much glided past us.

While we're on the subject of Bangkok transportation, we suggest you never ever drive here (unless your eyes are closed), and if possible, you should keep your eyes closed for as much of the drive as possible. The drivers here are insane. We thought Israelis are bad drivers, but oh my goodness, we're pretty sure all Bangkok driving lessons are defensive driving. Everyone knows they can pass and push to get where they want and someone will eventually stop. You can see people on bikes randomly crossing through driving traffic. The driver we had yesterday who brought us into Bangkok is probably still laughing at the mini heart attack I had yesterday when we were cut off.

So we had our wonderful map and just kept looking to see where we were. Siam is one of the biggest stations and is also a connection station, so about 1/3 of the bus actually got off there. The nice ticket lady who had asked us where we were going earlier also told us that this is the stop we should get off at.

Having a peach tea for two... at Tea For Two

We fully intended on going back to the hotel at this point - it was about 5 or 5:30 pm - but we couldn't find the Sky Train entrance and found ourselves inside the Siam Discovery mall. Which was cool. And we walked around a bit, I bought a new pair of sneakers because the soles of the (old) ones I brought disconnected, and then we went into a few toy stores to find gifts for my niece and nephew. We ate at a really cute local restaurant/coffee shop named Tea for Two and it was really delicious, though their definition of "only a little spicy" leaves something to be desired.


All in all, we walked around the mall for about an hour and then proceeded to find out about the International Film Festival going on at the Siam Patagon just down the street.

But once we stepped into the building...

Oh
My
Goodness

Y'all just don't understand. There was everything you could ever think of, it was huge, there were tons of restaurants, and that was just the first floor. It was gigantic and spacey, and Som told us that the Krispy Kreme just opened and there was often a 2-hour line (for a donut!!), so we did what every self-respecting person would do.

We stood in a two-hour line for a donut.

Not.

We took a picture of all the idiots standing in a two-hour line for a donut.

We decided to go up tot he 6th floor to see if there were any movies that we wanted to see so we could walk around later, but we never made it. Each floor of the mall is more amazing than the one before it. We took a few pictures, but they will never fully portray how incredibly huge the place is and completely gorgeous.

All this is made of Lego! For real!

There was an incredible Harry Potter Lego display on the 1st floor (we were able to see it well on the 2nd floor) and after oohing and aahing for a few minutes we walked into the most amazing department store on the 3rd floor. Honestly, nothing else needs to exist outside of that store, other than food. I actually found Candyland for my niece and nephew - how exciting is that? And it was really inexpensive. While we were browsing the children's section for presents, they had this amazing American kids songs CD playing that I really wanted to buy for them, so we asked the manager what CD it was and he told us where to get it - which we did.

This store is huge!!

The funny sales people at the CD store

The sales people at the department store were great, but the guys at the DIY store, where we bought the CDs were so completely awesome and hilarious. While marveling at their selection of country CDs (for real - we kept hearing country music all around Bangkok! Totally odd), a salesperson walked up to us to see if he could help, so we asked him about the CD. When he saw our camera was out, he started posing as if he were in a photo shoot (it was closed). He then called his friend over and they both said they wanted us to take a picture of them - so we did. Then they told us they were cute in the picture. They totally were.

After letting us listen to a selection from the CD to make sure it's what we wanted, the guy asked me where I was from. I said, "Texas." Then he said, "How did you get here? On your horse?" I was laughing so hard, I couldn't even come up with a smart answer. Even buying a CD in Bangkok is an experience.

Finally, literally over an hour after we reached the mall, we made it up to the cinema area. Oh my goodness, you don't understand. That place is gigantic. We saw the list of international movies that are playing while we're here, but couldnt' really find any we wanted to see on dates that we could attend, but we did see that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) is playing in the IMAX when we get back, so we got tickets. They're cheaper than the ones in Israel and it's IMAX. Totally cool. So we'll be going to that on our last night in Thailand.

All in all, it took us 2 hours to get to and through China Town, and about 5 hours to get back. You know, when we had no energy to walk anymore. :-)

See more of our pics from today and yesterday here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=567114&id=906005363&l=0f03363831