Bangkok in a nutshell!

I don't even know where to begin here, Bangkok is well, A BIG CITY!!! A really big city.  On Saturday we planned to go see The Grand Palace, The Emerald Buddha, and The Reclining Buddha, we needed up on a scam boat tour!  It was okay though, as we took  it in stride and that was day 1. 

Here are a few pictures, the rest of the pictures and full story will come in a few days! :-) 

On the boat. 

At the top of Wat Arun temple.

In a temple gardens.

A DELICOIUS pad thai dinner!

Bill's mini scotch! 

Day 2: a bike tour of Bangkok.  We thought this was going to be more of a city sights tour, oh no, it was 25 kilometers through the slums, through the jungle and through alley ways - really tight alley ways!  The tour company Recreational Biking Bangkok has our pictures on their Facebook page, check them out if you can't wait for me to post ours! Hehe But I promise I'll add many, many more pictures of this later when we get back to China.  I wish I had a helmet camera for this excursion as it was so surreal. Really made me thankful for what I have! 

Our tour guide Robin and Bill at our first break stop before taking a boat across the river!  We were SOAKED in sweat at this point... Biking in 80 degrees and 80% humidity is questionable! At least it was overcast!

This is a picture of all the lanes/alleys we road through for about 3 of the 6 hours:

A rickshaw ride to the local floating market: 

Dogs were ALL over the streets, alleys, everywhere: 

Lunch in the local market: 

This was a coconut filled pancake thingy. Not entirely sure, we ate it, it was tasty!

These were fried wontons with corn, we think pork and some other things. We dipped them in sweet curry sauce! Not bad.

We also sat at a restaurant in the market and I had a green curry, Bill had a noodle soup. Both very good! 

We tried real coconut milk, they served it to us in a cup, at th market but in the touristy areas of town they give it to you in the coconut, it was pretty good in the cup too!

It was a long day of biking in the heat so we enjoyed a delious Thai meal that evening and crashed as we left early for our flight to Cambodia today! 

So far we are relaxing in our hotel and will head to dinner with our tuc tuc driver in a bit! 

Don't Choke The Toilet?

We made it to Bangkok! It was a slow start though, China Eastern airlines is notorious for being delayed and well that 9:40pm flight never even left Shanghai until 11pm.  We boarded at 8:45 and then sat on the plane until 11... So that was a little bit annoying, but we made it and got to the hotel at 4 in the morning to crash.

One of the funniest moments of our flight experience was the bathroom on the plane....

I have never heard of "choking a toilet" but in China you can!

More Bangkok photos to come in the next few days.... We are off on a bike tour of the outskirts of the city today! 

Golden Week

October 1st marks the start of the National holiday Golden Week here in China.  The Peoples Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949 and since 2000 they have made October 1- 7 a national holiday week long celebration.

Most Chinese people travel back to their home towns to spend the holiday with their families and we were advised it's not a great time to travel around China so Bill and I have chosen to spend the holiday in Thailand - Bangkok and Cambodia - Siem Reap!  We set off tonight at 9:40 and land in Bangkok at 2am tomorrow.  If I'm a little slow at posting this week that's why!   But I will try to get some pictures of the trip up as soon as I can.

Street Food - The Suzhou Pancake

Today was my first time eating street food since being in China!  I've avoided it at all costs for many obvious reasons - cleanliness, the thought of becoming ill, etc.  However, today I was with Rae and Tracy some other expats doing "vendor" business and we were on a street called Ping Jiang Lu - it's a famous cobbled street in Suzhou along the canal and Rae (who is Chinese) was hungry.  So we made a pit stop at this little stand.  Tracy and I split a pancake since we were both a bit unsure.

 Here is the lady rolling out the dough which they then add things too.  The one we tried had fermented vegetables rolled into it.

 Then the man puts the raw dough in the barrel and fires it/cooks it up.  Kind of like a wood fired pizza oven.

 He adds some spicy garlic chili sauce and folds it up.

Here's what the finished product looks like for 5rmb.  ($0.83 cents)

So far I'm not sick yet!  I wasn't crazy about the taste of the fermented vegetables, but Rae did say they have a fresh green bean one so maybe I would try that the next time I wander down this road.

Here's a shot of some men on the canal.

Maybe it's time for a riding lawn mower?

 All I have to say about this is.... THANK GOODNESS I DON'T HAVE THIS GUYS JOB!!!   He had to cut this field of grass with a push mower!!!

I had left the apartment at 8am and when I returned at 2 in the afternoon he was still out here pushing away.  Poor guy!  And it's 88 degrees with 80% humidity.  I would not have survived.  

Dried Meat Floss?

Today in a bread shop called Paris Baguette I ran into these two items:   

Dried Meat Floss Cheese Bread:

I think I'd prefer to eat cheese bread only, no dried meat floss in it - whatever the heck is meat floss anyway?

Prince Octopus:

I'm not sure this "New" item is going to be a best seller.  It has eyes!  Well not real ones, but seriously, I have NO CLUE what this is!?!?!? 

I don't know what else to say. 

What floor do I live on?

There are 2 elevators on our side of the building that we can use to get to our apartment and the past 3 weeks one of them has been showing floor 23 when we get to 22 in the elevator.   Do you know how confusing that is?!?!?!

  

The first few times it really threw me off, the elevator says 23, I pushed the button for 22 and as I pop my head out I'm on 22.  Whew, I mean worse case I just walk down a flight of stairs no big deal. 

A few days ago someone tried to open our apartment door with their key - I'm guessing it was apartment 2303's residents.  Whoops!   

Just another crazy thing that is life here!

I hope it turns green!

The back entrance to our compound has been under construction since we moved in 6 months ago.  Mainly because they were building a kindergarten(the white building in the background) and they're putting up about 10 new apartment buildings.  Last week they took the construction walls down and moved away the temporary worker housing, man I wish I got a picture for you but they had a truck with a small crane on the back and were picking up these porta-potty looking like "houses" and setting them in the back of a flatbed.  It was scary and funny all at the same time.  This week they laid sod down and I'm quite baffled at the fact that it's brown.  I'm not a landscaper by any means but when 1/2 the sod is brown and dead looking will it come back to life and turn green?   I suppose if they water it and give it some TLC if can and will.  It just looks silly right now.

 1/2 good - 1/2 bad:

 I'm so glad I don't have this guys job!  Especially in the heat and in his long sleeves and long pants!

Mr. Pizza

Today the Not Mommies lunch was at a place called Mr. Pizza.  Not one of the 11 of us ordered a pizza!  I ordered a Mediterranean hummus wrap.  The picture showed a wrap with hummus and veggies loaded up and the menu said "Served Cold".  

Instead I got this:

A warm wrap with sauteed peppers inside and a tablespoon of hummus on the side.  As with most "Western" dining experiences here the pictures and descriptions are not always what they seem.  At least it was edible!   (Some of the girls meals weren't so nice.) 

Also, we were wondering the difference between fruit salads listed on the menu.  No one wanted to order to find out! 

The Convenience Tool Box

For the past 4 months that we've been going to Mandarin lessons I've walked by this box every morning and never noticed it until today!  I clearly need to be more observant - can you imagine the pictures I'd get for you then?  

Anywho - it's a "Convenience Tool Box" - and it contains what I'm calling a monkey wrench sitting on the glass shelf in the middle, because you never know when you're going to need a wrench while you're out and about in the city doing daily activities! 

My only question/concern is - how does one use the Convenience Tool Box when it's conveniently locked?  Not so convenient anymore is it?!?!?! 

Two Things Today

I have 2 things to comment on today...

1.  I am quite baffled by the fact that our gym does not turn the AC on!  I can't figure it out, it's been 90 and HUMID all stinking week long and they just don't turn on the AC.  Needless to say I last about 15/20 minutes before I'm soaked in sweat.   Fun stuff yes, especially for a person who 3 weeks ago had a horrible bout with heat stroke.

2.  I puked in my mouth today at the gym because the lady next to me smelled like China.
China has a smell - Bill smelled like China when he came home from work today, that reminded me of my gym experience and why I thought I'd share it with you.  It's not a good smell, just trust me on this one.

Happy Friday everyone!

Malaria Medication

In 2 weeks we'll be heading to Thailand and Cambodia (Yay for us... I'm doing a little dance!) unfortunately, Siem Reap Cambodia is in a malaria area according to the US CDC website.   Sooo, I thought it'd be a responsible thing for us to go get malaria medication.

Off to SingHealth we went this morning after mandarin lessons.  Neither Bill nor I had ever been to the clinic here. (Knock on wood and THANK GOODNESS!) However, the expats say if you do get sick for anything minor or need and meds always just go to SingHealth.  It's a Singaporean Clinic that basically caters to expats.  They can't do any major procedures but for small coughs/colds this is the place.    So we went, we registered and then we had to get our blood pressure and temperature taken.  I guess to make sure we were okay before they give us any medications.  

Then we met with a doctor who discussed that they only can give Doxycyline which you take 2 days prior to entering the malaria area then you take while in the malaria area and for 4 weeks after!  Gosh, after discussing this and the health risks I'm not sure why we picked Cambodia!?!?!  The doctor lady said about 3 times if you get a fever or headache or stomach ache go straight to the hospital because you will need different treatment.   We then walked to a counter, got our pills, paid the people and we were on our way!

The whole thing took about 15 minutes and $160 later we left with 8 packets of pills!

Here's to not getting malaria!!!

Master of the Nets

What better way to spend a Sunday evening than to head to dinner with 8 other fellow expats and then attend an evening garden performance?!?!

 Our group heading in the back entrance because why not!?!?

 Here's a poster/map of the garden.

 A pagoda/part of the garden lit up.

We started out at Yang Yang Dumpling Restaurant for a Chinese dinner.  The dumplings were good but not as good as the ones from a few weeks ago in Shanghai.  But the company was great and the other dishes we tried were tasty as well.

Then we headed off to Master of the Nets Garden for their summer evening performance.  There were probably around 30 people on the performance tour.  We would go into different areas of the garden, get a brief synopsis of history and a story and then see a performance.  The nice part was the lady giving the tour did speak English, however the English version was quite a bit shorter than the Chinese version she would say prior.  It was definitely an interesting night out and a look into the older Chinese culture that once was.

 These men in masks did a skit with a golden jar and fortune telling signs.

 Then were was some music playing.  I don't know the name of it but it was a skinny sideways harp type thingy!

 The garden walls all have different designs which are really unique and pretty in the evening especially.

 These girls did a dancing and signing skit.  The singing was pretty quite though and we could barely hear them.

 These men did a skit on a robbery and foolery and it was quite funny. The man in the black clothes certainly did a lot of jumping around.

 There was another musical and signing number.

 And the grand finally was 3 girls playing musical instruments and another signing.  This piano type thingy was the main instrument.

Here's a link to the wikipedia description of Master of the Nets which explains the history much better than I even could!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_the_Nets_Garden