Monday, August 22, 2011
Bangkok....again!
Found this in my drafts folder... Thought I would share!
It is hard to believe we are back in Bangkok and wrapping up our 3 weeks of travel. Seems like yesterday we were wondering through Chinatown in search of our first guesthouse with wide eyes and open mouths trying to take it all in. Now it has been 3 countries, 7 towns, a few villages, 10 hotels/guesthouses and a lifetime of experiences. Our last few days in Phnom Phen were relaxed. We have been moving at a pace that is impossible to maintain for 3 weeks straight and there are only so many temples and makets one can visit...that is clearly CK talking as I could go to markets and temples all day everyday and never get tired! We woke up early yesterday morning and enjoyed ourbreakfast by the pool before heading to the central market. I had told CK the day before that if we found a cricket vender I was going to eat one. As we shopped around, looking at all the same things we have seen at every market we have visited, we happened upon a a lady with 7 baskets of fried delicacies. She had massive cockroaches as well as itty bitty ones, crickets, scorpions the size of my palm, frogs fried whole, and huge grasshoppers. There we stood staring down at the baskets. Surprisingly, they did not look as gross as I had expected (a sure sign that we need to get back to the western world) but not so surprisingly I could notbring myself to eat one. I stood staring and repeating my mantra from the waterfall leap a few weeks ago... I will never stand in this spot again... but nothing. I guess there are just some experiences I am willing to miss!
We finished up at the market and headed out to meet our tuk tuk driver, Mr. Chum. He was one we picked up outside the hotel and not our trusty Rina who Lindsay recommended and who drove us all around PP for 3 days and even hired a boat for us to do a sunset crusie on the Tonle Sap River. Mr. Chum spoke English but I am not sure he understood what the words leaving his mouth meant. We agreed to head to a cafe on the way to the hotel so we could grab an iced coffee... material for another post iced coffee with sweet milk is YUMMY... on the way we turned down a street that was at a dead stand still. Motos, cars, tuk tuks everywhere with children of various sizes running in between. It only took a few moments to realise we were at a school. Most schools here run 2 sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, in order to fit all the children into lessons. Mr. Chum slowly weaved his way through the traffic as we thought "this is a funny road to take to the cafe." It was within a few minutes of hectic congestion and toes being run over (not ours) that we realised that Mr. Chum had taken a detour to pick his daughter up from school! What can you do in these situations but laugh. We have been subjected to many transportation detours during our travels and in comparison this one was not so bad.
It is hard to believe we are back in Bangkok and wrapping up our 3 weeks of travel. Seems like yesterday we were wondering through Chinatown in search of our first guesthouse with wide eyes and open mouths trying to take it all in. Now it has been 3 countries, 7 towns, a few villages, 10 hotels/guesthouses and a lifetime of experiences. Our last few days in Phnom Phen were relaxed. We have been moving at a pace that is impossible to maintain for 3 weeks straight and there are only so many temples and makets one can visit...that is clearly CK talking as I could go to markets and temples all day everyday and never get tired! We woke up early yesterday morning and enjoyed ourbreakfast by the pool before heading to the central market. I had told CK the day before that if we found a cricket vender I was going to eat one. As we shopped around, looking at all the same things we have seen at every market we have visited, we happened upon a a lady with 7 baskets of fried delicacies. She had massive cockroaches as well as itty bitty ones, crickets, scorpions the size of my palm, frogs fried whole, and huge grasshoppers. There we stood staring down at the baskets. Surprisingly, they did not look as gross as I had expected (a sure sign that we need to get back to the western world) but not so surprisingly I could notbring myself to eat one. I stood staring and repeating my mantra from the waterfall leap a few weeks ago... I will never stand in this spot again... but nothing. I guess there are just some experiences I am willing to miss!
We finished up at the market and headed out to meet our tuk tuk driver, Mr. Chum. He was one we picked up outside the hotel and not our trusty Rina who Lindsay recommended and who drove us all around PP for 3 days and even hired a boat for us to do a sunset crusie on the Tonle Sap River. Mr. Chum spoke English but I am not sure he understood what the words leaving his mouth meant. We agreed to head to a cafe on the way to the hotel so we could grab an iced coffee... material for another post iced coffee with sweet milk is YUMMY... on the way we turned down a street that was at a dead stand still. Motos, cars, tuk tuks everywhere with children of various sizes running in between. It only took a few moments to realise we were at a school. Most schools here run 2 sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, in order to fit all the children into lessons. Mr. Chum slowly weaved his way through the traffic as we thought "this is a funny road to take to the cafe." It was within a few minutes of hectic congestion and toes being run over (not ours) that we realised that Mr. Chum had taken a detour to pick his daughter up from school! What can you do in these situations but laugh. We have been subjected to many transportation detours during our travels and in comparison this one was not so bad.
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