After breakfast everyone but Adam headed down to the tailors to pick up sine well priced clothes. The cost came to $40-$50 per shirt but that is really good considering similar quality in the states would be $150 each. I ended up getting 3 black dress shirts to replace the China trip ones that have worn out. Steph and Jeremy got some clothes but I’m not sure about the others. I think Amit and Tina also got some but nick certainly didn’t.
We went to the bangkok baking company for breakfast and had a very western style breakfast with western pricing. The food was pretty good. Jeremy was the only one who slept in a bit and when he was trying to get to the place for breakfast got a little bit lost and walked 10 minutes in the wrong direction.
This morning I also found out that the head monk for Thailand died last week and that the period of mourning for him may push back the lot krathong festival, which may make us miss it.
Five of us waited at beachhead house and got to the airport super early. Jeremy and nick met us there and we hung out before the flight playing some open face Chinese poker.
The flights were mostly uneventful and steph was nice enough to give me a sleeping pill for the first flight. I was able to see The Wolverine and Red2 which were both decently enjoyable movies. We got there and did the ATM run and also picked up some Thailand Sim cards so that we could use the internet and keep in touch while there.
Nick found a place for dinner that was supposed to be really tasty and had a lot of night market near it. Both counts were certainly true. The food was great and we were able to get some different from normal foods like thousand year eggs and their seafood medley. After dinner Steph and I stopped by a roti stand that was more or less making sweet roti crepes. They were really tasty and amazingly cheap. Tina Adam and Amit then left to go back to the hotel and Nick Steph and I went around the night market. It was a bit of sensory overload but still decently enjoyable. I got some boba but it was way too sweet. I ended up drinking it all for the hydration. It seems that it is impossible to drink enough water here. We didn’t find anything too interesting at the market so we hopped onto a raised pedestrian walkway that let’s you bypass the market. It gave some really nice views of the canals, the monument and the market.
We took a first wander around the neighborhood and realized we are in a nice part of the city. There are a lot of western style bars and food stands close to the hotel. We walked a little ways away and ended up in the middle Eastern section of the city. There we got a little bit of food just to tie us over. The others also grabbed some random street food and I decides to get a little something at the hotel. We found a bar that looked nice and got s found of drinks there. While waiting for the drinks we thought we saw a pickpocket get caught by some of the taxi drivers. It was a very relaxing way to spend the first afternoon. Steph and Tina got coconuts from one of the street stands and it was pretty good. We thought about stopping off for some massages before dinner but no one was up for trying any of the places we saw
We had a bit of an adventure getting to the hotel. The location that was on Google maps wasn’t even close to the right spot. Tina was really tired since she was carrying the most. We got to the place where Google said it should be and then got 2 cabs to take us to the right spot. We got signed in right before a big tour bus pulled in and then got to the rooms. Tina and amit weren’t able to get into the room and when someone let them in there was a dog in the room. That was because the person at the desk had written the wrong number on the cards. I hope we can all find a nice place to relax and Unwind so we can all get ready to enjoy the vacation. Nick and I ran down to the 7-11 for drinks and waited in the room for the others to join.
The morning I was going to fly back I packed everything up and waited for Jeff to come get me. We went to lunch at Moe’s and then he dropped me off at the place he gets haircuts. They gave me a good cut and I then went to the close-by Marta station. The ride to the airport and the flight back were uneventful, except that I went through the battery on my iPhone and laptop. When I got back to SFO I took Bart to Caltrain and grabbed some food at Gyros Gyros as Steph came to pick me up. We stopped by my place to say hi to the kitties and then went back to Beachhead.
Jeff took me to Yeah! Burger for dinner on Sunday since Leslie couldn’t join us. We did an order to go since I was planning on meeting up with Derick at 8pm and we only had an hour to get the food and get back. The meat and produce were really well documented for where they came from, and most of it was local farms. There was a chalkboard saying which farm each type of meat had come from. I really like that kind of food transparency. It is one of the philosophical things I’ve been working through. Jeff took great care of me throughout the week. I know he felt bad about having me come out there, but I think he had a relaxing time. I hope it is what he needed.
I hung out with Derick at Famous after picking up dinner with Jeff. I ate the Yeah! burger on the walk from Jeff’s place to Famous Pub. Derick and I talked about all sorts of stuff, mainly just catching up on life. I brought up some of the philosophical questions I have been struggling with lately. We had a few beers and split some fries with amazing toppings.
It's an Exciting World 