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April 14, 2006
38 Baht=$1

Friday begins with another excellent buffet breakfast at Peninsula.

After breakfast, we take the boat across to the skytrain and out to Chatuchak (the weekend market) to look for the Aw Taw Kaw food market supposedly "next to" Chatuchak. Below is a sign from the Skytrain.

Hint: If you take skytrain, walk all around the outside of market to find the Subway stop. The market is visable, just across the street from the subway stop. It's an amazing food market filled with all sorts of beautiful produce, meats, and fish. It's horribly hot so we buy fresh squeezed OJ. There's also a reportedly fabulous food court, filled with all sorts of different offerings. However, there aren't a lot of signs in English, we're not feeling particularly adventurous and thus are unsure of our choices. We get nothing.

 

We walk back though the weekend market, (oddly in our many times in Bangkok we've never been here) and some stalls are open, though not many. I buy two woven grass purses and two bracelets made of shells, probably not bartering hard enough.

We take the skytrain back to MBK mall for lunch at Kanom Chine. It's on the ground floor, under PP hotel. Good noodles with chicken and great curry sauce. What to do with dried fish and egg? I don't know, but I enjoy the crispy fish bits.

Back to hotel for time by pool. It's so warm the water is like bathwater. For dinner we go back to the skytrain to Thonglo looking for restaurant down a very dark soi 36. It's closed for the holiday! Lesson learned, always call ahead.

Plan B is go back to the Asok station, soi 23, and take a long hot walk to find Baan Kranithita. The restaurant looks like an old Thai house and they seat us upstairs. They bring a wonderful complimentary appetizer with leaves that are to be filled with all sorts of savories, wrapped like a package and eaten. We also order eggplant salad with shrimp, squid, and ground pork, duck red curry with grapes, stir fried morning glory with garlic and chilis. It'a all good and this turns out to be one of the best ducks of the trip. The food does not seem to be "dumbed down" for tourists (though there are quite a few here). With the food, we have two beers, waters, rice, and it's 1000 baht.

 

It's late and Songkran is in full force.We take the subway to the night market at 10 pm. so we can buy last minute gifts and souvineers; inscense burners, wine holder made of mango wood, chopsticks, silk pillow covers and get back to the pier in time to catch last Peninsula boat across the river.

April 15, 2006

Can I say it? Yet another excellent breakfast this morning. It's Easter Sunday and we ask again for a late checkout. Unfortunately the answer is "sorry no sir, hotel full". We are offered only a 1/2 hour for changing room. Both of us have belly trouble this morning so we spend what's left of our time in the room taking it slow in room and packing. We check out exactly at noon and neither of us feel like going anywhere so we stay by the pool and get a cabana. We order lunch; burger and fries, fried calimari with kaffir lime mayo and a coke for 1000 baht. When it's time to go we get the changing room which is a hotel room on 4th floor with no view and no bed. But, it gives us the ability to shower and change in comfort and privacy.

We get a meter taxi back to airport, 280- baht inc tip (this is Don Muang, before the new airport opened). On the way, we're concerned we might not make it as the the taxi's fuel gage was on empty, the car felt sluggish and every other vehicle was zipping past us as we went no faster than 60 k per hour on the elevated expressway. At least this guy had no weird ticks or odd grooming habits. We arrive 2.5 hours before the flight, and go through to the departure gates. We have time, so we decide to get massages. Four years ago there was only one place, now there are at least 1/2 a dozen with varying prices and offers, one even offered oxygen therapy. We walk down to the place we'd used 4 years earlier, at the far end of the terminal near gates 11-15. 600 baht each for 1 hour foot, head and shoulder massage while sitting in a large black leather recliner. 100 baht tip. Well worth the expense. Open until 1 am. Noticed another place on way to our gate, right before the security checkpoint for gates in the 50's there is a place that advertises itself as open 24 hours, good for those staying in the airport overnight waiting for outgoing connecting flight.

Our flight leaves at 6:40 and only offers a 1 hour layover in HK, I hope we make it. We arrive in HK late and we have 20 min to make it to gate before boarding. Again we sprint across the airport and arrive at gate as they are boarding the flight. The way home has horrible turbulance. We breeze through immigration on arrival and roll on out.

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