The Bangkok Family Adventure - Part 2

Thai silk is world famous, but it wasn't always so. The reason for it's reputation is due to Jim Thompson, a former architect who served in southeast Asia during World War II. After the war, he returned to Bangkok to revitalize this cottage industry. A visit to Vogue magazine in 1947 brought the colors and quality of the hand-woven material to center stage, and the rest is fashion history. Jim Thompson disappeared mysteriously in 1967 while vacationing in Malaysia. His home which is constructed from several traditional Thai houses combined together is now a museum. It contains remarkable antiques and is the second most popular tourist attraction in Bangkok.

So of course we had to make a visit. So after breakfast, we set out on the Skytrain to check it out. It did not disappoint. The house is as interesting as his story and the grounds are beautifully designed and maintained.

For lunch, we opted to take up Jackie's suggestion that we go to a Bangkok institution of a different sort. Founded in the mid-1970's by Mechai Viravaidya, a former government minister, Cabbages and Condoms is a restaurant with a mission. The proceeds from the restaurant benefit the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), a non-profit service organization devoted to AIDS prevention and family planning in Thailand. The name is based on the diet of northern Thailand's rural poor, cabbages, and the early focus of the PDA on the use of condoms for population control -- ahead of the AIDs epidemic. The name comes from the idea that both need to be cheap and easily available.

The food was quite good; the restaurant gets consistently good reviews in travel magazines, websites, and guidebooks. The setting was beautiful and peaceful, even though we were only a few blocks off the major Sukhumvit thoroughfare.

The gift shop and various decoration, on the other hand, had nothing to do with cabbages. If you are shopping for that hard-to-buy-for person who "has everything", well let's just say they probably don't have a condom key chain or a bouquet of condom flowers. And there's more, much much more to choose from.

Oh yes, when they bring the bill, instead of mints, they bring you a stack of condoms. There are more for the taking from a display by the exit.

Erica was in the throws of a full-fledged cold so we headed back to the apartments. Paul & Jackie did a walking tour of the Silom area, including a brief walk-through the Patpong area as the sun was setting, the night market was being set up, and the shall we say more exotic elements of the neighborhood were arriving for the night shift. We also took a look at local Hindu temple. One of our missions was to check out legit establishments for Thai massages and we identifed a couple of good candidates. One featured a 2 hour massage for 300 Baht, less than US$9.

We got back to the apartments and quickly got ready and dashed over to the nearby river dock to board a dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya River. We'd received solid advice from a local (more about him in Part 3) to book with the Manohra Cruises. (photo from their website).

Dinner cruises are big business in Bangkok and there are plenty of options to choose from. Manohra uses antique teak rice barges for their boats and these seat less than 90 people per cruise. Others have gigantic "party boats" with flashing neon, music, and buffet lines.

Our cruise was quiet, serene, and breathtakingly beautiful as we traveled up and down the river past most of the temples we'd toured the previous day, each of which was lit up in spectacular fashion. And no buffet here: it was a 5 course table service meal, from appetizers through dessert. The "dinner" and "cruise" elements both deserve equally high billing.

We sadly left the cruise when it returned to our dock, but our evening plans were not over yet. We walked over to the State Tower to visit the Scirocco bar. It's part of the Lebua restaurant complex and their dress code was strict on shoes so we had to go back to the apartment a few blocks away to get appropriately dressed.

But it was worth it. The view is simply remarkable. Check out the Scirocco link above to get an appreciation for the setting where the photo to the left was taken. That's the Centrepoint Silom with the rounded sides in the foreground and the Chao Phraya behind it. You can also see the lights Skytrain station to the left of the building.

We called it an evening after taking in all the views and looking at a couple of the other dining and bar venues. The streets were practically empty, a sharp contrast to the daytime hustle and bustle of the area. But Silom's activity level is tame compared to where we would venture the next day: Chatuchak Market.

The Bangkok Family Adventure - Part 1

"One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me."
- Chess (1984)

With this tune on our iPods and in our heads, we boarded the Swiss airlines flight from Singapore to Bangkok on 25-Dec. Although it's a short 2 hour flight almost straight north, the journey took us from young, clean Singapore to the "real Asian" city that was the capital of Siam and part of the Cambodian Khmer empire before that.

On board the flight, Erica & Paul used a Berlitz program in the entertainment system learned to count in Thai. Greg German, Paul's college roomate, lived in Bangkok about 15 years ago and counseled that there are 3 prices in the market: the lowest is for locals speaking fluent Thai, the highest is for tourists speaking only English, and something in the middle for Anglos speaking a little "phasa Thai", presumably because they must live there and know what is reasonable pricing. Paul also took a short Pimsleur audio course before the trip to have some basic phrases available. (If you need to learn a language fast, Pimsleur is the way to go.)

As we walked through the ultra-modern Suvarnabhumi Airport we were eagerly curious about seeing any signs of the recent unrest that had shut down the airport less than a month ago. Not a one. We briefly stood in the cab line where there was a desk that wrote your destination down in Thai to simplify communication with the taxi driver. Ours also spoke "nitnoy phasa Anglit" but since we were staying in a service apartment (Centrepoint Silom) and not one of the regular hotels, he still had to consult with a couple of fellow cab drivers to find the place.

Our first day in Bangkok we spent on a tour of the major temple sites and the Grand Palace. It was supposed to be a group tour, but since tourism hasn't exactly returned in full strength (plus the holiday period), the group was just the four of us, our guide and the driver. Sweet. We visited Wat Phra Kaew where we saw the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace. At Wat Pho, we saw the Reclining Buddha. We then went to Wat Bowoniwet and on to Wat Benchamabophit (aka The Marble Temple). There we saw Phra Buddhajinaraja, a beautiful golden Buddha and toured a courtyard with over 52 Buddhas in various poses. Our guide explained each one and what the differences in the hand placements and poses mean, e.g. "stop fighting" or "calming the waters". Our next stop was Wat Intharawihan where we saw the 32m (105 feet) tall Standing Buddah and a neat row of Tuk-Tuks, the local low-end cabs.

By then we were officially wat-saturated and our guide took us to Gems Gallery International, a gianormous jewlery factory and show room as a final stop. The "factory" is miniscule, the sales area is infinitely larger. The jewelry business is a big one in Thailand because of the low cost of labor and the lack of duty on importing precious stones. (It's also a legendary source of various scams.) This place was legit (ISO certified, no less), targeted at tourists, and priced accordingly. Nice tour, remarkable artistry, but only a couple of minor souvenir sales from us. We then returned to our apartments to regroup and get ready for a very late lunch.

We decided to head to one of the famous shopping malls, Mah Boon Krong or "MBK". The 6th floor food center was our destination. So we walked around the corner to the BTS Skytrain for the trip across town. The Skytrain is a huge time-saver because the traffic in Bangkok is unbelieveably bad (and clearly visible from the Skytrain wizzing past all the gridlock).

The food center was easy to find and we had no problem finding a table for lunch, probably because it was about 3:30 pm. We tried a variety of local items and for dessert we had Thai sticky rice with fruit. In this case, we all tried the safe and delicious mango variety and Jackie and Paul had the definitely more adverturesome durian option. Jackie's judgement: "interesting" and she didn't stop with just one taste.

We then made the rounds of two of MBK's floors. One was the Thai souvenir level where we saw these remarkable metal sculptures made out of welded together spare/used autoparts. The Wall-E figure was Erica's favorite. They were pretty pricey and as we encoutered them several times during our visit, the pricing was consistent and not very negotiable. (Turns out there is a website from which you can order them.)

Even though this was a shopping mall, the pricing on this floor was negotiable. Raye was particularly effective at bargaining, getting 40% off a couple of item as she and the salesperson stood in front of a sign proclaiming "no discounts". And of course she did this with no Thai language, putting Erica & Paul to shame.

We also went to the "cell phone" floor where Paul was able to look over the fake iPhones and something called the "iPhone Mini". While these are working cell phones, the only thing they have in common with the real iPhone is the look of the phone and copy-cat packaging. We were able to make a useful purchase: a local SIM card for Paul's cell phone that gave us on-the go internet access and a local Bangkok phone number that was useful for making reservations. We also checked out pricing for Wii items and the prices were the same as in the USA.

It was a long, interesting day so we headed back on the Skytrain to rest up for our next day.

Erica & Jackie Visit Singapore

It has been a jam-packed couple of weeks while Erica & Jackie visited us in Singapore. Months of looking forward to their visit did not disappoint as we had some wonderful adventures together.

Despite getting back to the apartment from Changi airport after 2AM, we were all up in time to take a tour of Singapore from the top of a double-decker bus. We had lunch in Little India at a Northern Indian / Nepalese restaurant. We also did a bit of looking at Tekka Center, stopping at the wet market to buy a couple of custard apples and dragon fruit to have for breakfast the next day. We walked by Clarke Quay and caught a holiday ice skating performance.

We visited both the Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari on different days during the visit. Both were huge hits. One of the highlights of the Zoo visit was first hand experience with a "spa fish treatment". The Night Safari is the first after-dark zoo, and provides a great opportunity to see animals like bats, owls, and certain big cats who are active at night.

We had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Indochine Waterfront, near the Asian Civilizations museum and got to enjoy the view of the Singapore River at night. Orchard Road was particularly active with the late night holiday shoppers.

The trip to Bangkok will be a separate blog entry.

We celebrated New Years with our friends the Greene's who pulled out all the stops for a wonderful evening. Many of our friends' college-aged and older kids were visiting and provided an opportunity for Erica & Jackie to meet some of the "locals" who went to school here, primarily at the American School.

Paul & the girls made a day trip into Malaysia for lunch so Erica & Jackie could collect another stamp in their passports. It was a short visit and we found several better food options after lunch (of course). We got back in plenty of time to attend the opening night of Lea Salonga in Rogers & Hammerstein's "Cinderella" at the Esplanade. Lea Salonga was the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Disney's Aladdin and also the singing voice of "Mulan". We finished that evening with Singapore Slings at the Raffle's Long Bar.

On the last day of their visit, Paul & Jackie made the rounds of the fancy car dealerships so Jackie could ask questions about the difference in local models and to collect literature. We had lunch at one of the better chicken-rice places and then made a quick trip over to Tiger Balm Park (Har Paw Villa).

The visit was over to soon and Erica & Jackie were on their way to Tokyo for a 3-day adventure of their own.

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