Claire and I arrived in Bangkok after a pretty grueling journy. We left Pushkar and took the bus to Jaipur, spent the night there then got an early (~7:30) bus to Delhi, thinking that the bus would be late and we’d end up just making our 9pm flight. Not so! For once everything went right on time and we were at the airport for 1pm. At this point India decided to give us one last kick in the ass – because we were too early for our flight we were told that we couldn’t go into the terminal, and not only that, but to use the seperate waiting area outside we were going to have to pay! Paying to wait at the airport was just too funny. We tried our hand at bargaining our way in, but in the end just went to an expensive restaurant and spent our money there.
After waiting 8 hours in Delhi we took our Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore and commensed our next session of waiting. We got in at 4am and our next flight was at 1pm, so another 9 hours of waiting and we were on our last flight – a budget airline that didn’t even serve water, much less coffee. By the time we landed in Bangkok it had been about 34 hours with only 2 hours of sleep in the Singapore airport chairs. Ugh.
Thankfully we weren’t without help in Bangkok. A friend of the family, Brent Smith, had very kindly offered to let us stay at his house while we in town. On our way there we immediately started learning about our new surroundings. First thing is that there is almost no spoken English here. In India, just about everybody speaks Engish, so after all the traveling we got in a fight with the 1st Thai cabbie and ended up having to change taxis.
When we finally got dropped off at the end of Brent’s block we proceeded to walk, pretty much aimlessly, around the neighborhood thinking that Brent’s house was this way and that way. Finally ending our 1 hour search only 15 meters from the start! Exhaustion can do some funny things to your brain!
When we fianlly made it to Brent’s house it was like we had arrived in the holy land after a long pilgrimage. Brent was at work, but his friendly maid was home and let us in, gave us slippers, showed us our room, gave us towels for the shower and pool, and directed us to the freshly baked beef lasagna in the fridge! We ate, showered and collapsed in our beds at 5:30pm and slept straight through until nine the next morning.
After being welcomed like royalty, we learned that we were living not far off. Brent’s beautiful condo in the center of Bangkok is located right next door to Thai and Indian royalty! We even got to play in the pool with the young princes and their flock of nannies and friends.
After a bit of R&R we were ready to tackle Bangkok! The first day we were in town we went out to the JJ weekend market and shopped till we dropped, literally! We both bought new outfits to replace the ones that we wore out in India – or in Claire’s case, just to look pretty. We knew that we were becoming more dangerous travelers because we decided, after 18 hours in Thailand, that it was time to try the street meat…and it was delicious!
The next day we went to the Siam Paragon mall, apperently the largest in all of Southeast Asia, and visited the flagship Barbara Barry store. My aunt Barbara is an interior designer in Los Angeles and her first store opened in Bangkok right next to the Marth Stewart Living store. And if I do say so myself, her work looks frigging great when displayed next to Martha’s! We were treated like royalty there too! Served her signature tea (from the shop “T” located at Grandville and Broadway in Vancouver) and given the full attention of the staff. Especially when I was doing acrobatics infront of the store before introducing myself. The highlight for me (sorry aunt BB) was admiring the painting by my mom, hung in prime position, right by the front door!
The next couple of days went by in a flash. We spent one day finding and figuring out the buses in Thailand, and capped off the day with just about the best dinner of my life! Brent took us to a teppenyaki steak house where our personal chef juggled his spatula, skewer and even the egg for the fried rice! Soooo good!
After that we were ready to head north and anxious to see the rest of this cool country!
you guys are living the dream. sounds like a blast. whistler has calmed down from an amazing november and december into a lacklustre january. sunny in town here for a week though!
i miss you both, i’m glad to hear you’re having the trip of 2 lifetimes.
love
pete
Ha, ha!!
Lovin the proud looks your giving off there Seth!! Like a cat who just got into the cream!
Keep it up my lovelies!!!
-cb!