Thailand

More from Bangkok…

Went on a run this morning which is pretty hairy. Ended up on a back road and made eye contact with a street dog. It belongs to a family but I attracted the attention of 3 other dogs and that one growled and followed me. The owners were really nice and came out to yell at the dog. They stayed out until I was gone. I definitely attract more attention here than in guangzhou since this is not an expat community.

Passing a wet Market I saw a Buddhist monk giving prayers. I watched and it seems very ritualistic and respectful.

Back at the hotel we ran a boot camp style workout with the kids then let them swim for while. Here is the view from the swimming pool.

And through the bushes there is another great view of Bangkok.

We just got word we have a flight out this afternoon. Yeah. We are running out of clothes! There has been a lot of wind and rain there and students were sending video of glass subdued shattered from flying debris. I am sure there is probably school tomorrow.

The Thai night market

If you are looking for Street food there is plenty around but at the night Market it is amazing. Rows of vendors serving all kinds of dishes.

I really wanted to get the whole fish cooked on a spit but not enough time to eat it and see other things.

The mango sticky rice was amazing and something I will try to make myself. Glutinous rice, coconut milk, mango, and crispy rice on top.

We ate baby octopus.

We also ate Cooked quail eggs with mussels on top. They poach them on cast iron molds on skewers.

We also ate sweet potato balls. These were delicious.

I snapped a few other pictures of octopus balls, grasshoppers (yes we all tried one though the kids bet money on making the captain eat one), rainbow cheese sandwiches (did not try this but cheese is very different here.)

One of the students bought cheese fries. The cheese was sweet almost as if it was made from sweetened condensed milk. It had some hot spice in it though.

In the end we went back to the hotel and no surprise that the kids were silk hungry. I guess the market was just an appetiser for them. The mall is a couple blocks walk then across a pedestrian bridge. It is huge. 5 stories with any kind of shop you would need including a grocery store at the bottom. I bought more seaweed snacks as they are more expensive in China.

So we are going to hear about when we will fly out. Flights are now resuming but still delayed. The school is paying our stay at this hotel for a long as we need including the breakfast buffet which is the best that I have ever had hands down.

Back in Bangkok

After the 10k I had time to shower and eat breakfast at the pung-waan resort. The bus ride takes 4.5 hours to get back to Bangkok. The thought of 13 teenagers cooped up in a hotel or going to the mall is not the best option since we have no idea when our flight will be. Instead we rented vans that we had at our disposal for up to 9 hours. They took us to the canal boat tours to see different sights of Bangkok.

There is some fascinating street art outside of where we purchased the ride.

This is what the boat looked like.

The water was pretty choppy and difficult to get good pictures. Much like other areas you have really poor housing and a nicer house will appear next to it.

I was taking a picture of this bird (people who know me understand this) when I noticed the alligator next to it. A little hard to see in the picture and again tough to get a good picture in that type of boat.

Locals selling merchandise will approach the boat. Unfortunately it started pouring though we had some cover on the boat. I had exchanged numbers with the driver and let him know we were done with the boat tour. We were originally going to go to the grand Palace and the temples but their are strict dress code rules. As we had not planned on that sine if the students did not have long enough shorts. We took a car tour of the area instead and headed to a local market.

Thailand has the highest fatality of drivers and mostly of motorbike. I snapped this picture of a little dog on his owners shoulder (and is with the police). This is taken looking out or front windshield.

From here we went to the Night Market which opens at 5 and has food and clothes. I’ll write another post about that.

The driver was fairly decent with English and had a great sense of humour with the students. I had all of the girls with me. We asked questions and he taught them she Thai phrases.

This is the best explanation of hello and how to bow for respect. It is important in their culture. So is calling me madame much like the English would.

I am not really being a tourist on vacation as I am here in a school trip. So far in the cross country invitational trip we stayed one night in Bangkok. We then had a 4.5 hr bus trip to the pung-waan resort in kanchanaburi. The river kwai runs through here.

Before we left we went grocery shopping for lunch on the bus, drinks, and snacks. I bought these items. Some are to bring back for later. Afterall, how often do we get to try dried cuttlefish (like a squid). The red bean and matcha kit kats are also for later. I picked two fruits that I don’t know what they are. All the groceries totaled 12 USD. The apples are pink lady. I did resist buying the oreo moon cakes. The red pear shaped fruit was not very sweet and had the consistency of a pepper without the idea taste of the pepper. It is called a wax apple. The green fruit is actually a guava.

Dinner at night was crazy cheap and breakfast at the Best Western Wanda was excellent.

The rooms were beautiful. It is funny to read the reviews that say the beds are too hard. All the beds in southeast Asia are hard and are a thin layer of padding over wood. It was actually one of the more comfortable places I have slept.

I am intrigued by all of the temples for prayer.

The countryside is beautiful and looks much like any rural area even in the States with little shops and houses.

The resort is cabins and common areas. They set up a 4k course to run which we did when we arrived. The team has their race bibs and chips. After dinner tonight will be the coaches meeting. Here is the entrance to the dining terrace.

This is the river kwai. There is a dam up steam and unfortunately they had to open it to let water go due to lots of rain. This is part of their housing that is now under water.

Outside one of the cabins.

Inside the cabin.

View from the patio outside the cabin.

So far there has been more rain but it has been a great trip with these kids. They are still teenagers but very mature for their age and really nice people. Tomorrow is the race followed by challenge courses to compete in. All the students are mixed with other teams in new groups. In Sunday we have a 10k fun run. We leave to go back to Bangkok and will then know whether we can get in a plane or whether the flight week be delayed due to the super typhoon making landfall in China on Sunday morning.