Bangkok – round up of last few days and general ramblings

Mandy: 11th – 13th October 2014

Our room in our first hotel was lovely. It was quite dark though as the light shade was that solid brass type (like in Egypt) with tiny holes hammered through, and there was dark wood everywhere. There was a blue glass sliding door in to the bathroom where the walls were covered in dark slate. It was very nicely done with a round sink and a brass Tortoise tap. However every time I moved the tap to the side to get the water out I half expected the slate tiled wall to open up into a black magic world with jungle animals stampeding through a house! (like in the film Jumanji) It is this kind of annoying imagination that I have to cope with in life which causes me to have anxiety with every step and the odd nightmare.

Here is a link to the film Jumanji for you to click on Dad in case you haven’t seen or heard of the film. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumanji

We changed hotel after that! We loaded up our backpacks and took a short walk across the bridge and checked in to the Bhiman Inn Hotel. It was cheaper, bigger and brighter but we had to share a room on the first night …..not because it was a dormitory/hostel! No, we shared our room with bugs! But it had the best drying area! Our window opened which meant we could hang our clothes out to dry on the air con unit (happy days)

We finally had our long awaited Thai massage the other afternoon. It was not the relaxing sort of massage I have enjoyed in UK (and Europe) with oils and perfumed candles though.

The Thai women might be small but they are strong!!

I couldn’t get a photo of the rest of our massage on the beds in the private rooms upstairs (that sounds bad) as they were either sat astride us or had one of our arms wrapped behind our head!! (So does that lol!)

I alternated between concentrating on not shouting out with pain to trying with all my might not to pull away and laugh when it tickled my feet. But there was a moment when we were face down on a thin matress on the floor upstairs where I actually relaxed and I must have dozed off for a few minutes because I suddenly woke up with a start! imagining that an elephant was walking over my body as the masseuse pummelled my poor back, all but winding me!

I could hear creaking noises coming from Glen’s bed next to me every now and again and I couldn’t decide if it was the floor boards or his bones I could hear! At the end, as if by way of apology for hurting us they served us this Thai tea and fruit (smile)

Mum, the ‘cups and saucers’ put me in mind of those lettuce leaf shaped dishes that were around in the 60’s and 70’s, I am sure you or Nan Permial had one…?

Whilst walking home later that night down the dimly lit alley, where hawker stalls had long since closed up for the night, I swear I saw that Confucius guy in the shadows. He had wispy grey hair and looked very old….. well he would by now! He looked me straight in the eye, I smiled…. but he didn’t ‘say’ anything (wink)

I am not sure we are getting this blogging malarkey right. With Facebook comments about a recent blog like “Gorgeous Mandy! Keep sharing your photos pretty please xxxx” I am wondering whether Allie is trying to tell me to write less and put more photos up lol! I know a picture paints a thousand words Allie (especially your fantastic shots) but I am not a women of few words, you know me well enough…..why say five words when fifty are there waiting in my head to be written lol!

Noticing this wonderful Buddhist monk’s orange robes drying on a huge clothes airer, whilst up Wat Arun the other night, came second only to the sight of coming across a girl washing clothes In a stream in Ubud, Bali last year. (Beaming with happiness!)…. As I sit here proofing this blog in the airport we are sat opposite a Buddhist monk (our knees almost touching!) and his normally dressed friend. Long story short, the young guy in normal clothes gestured for us to have our photo taken with him on his camera! I soooo wanted to say only if your friend (the monk) will have his photo taken with us! I didn’t of course. We just posed with him as the monk took the photo of us three! (Smile) As we left the monk wished us a safe flight. Well I think that Is what he said (smile)

Our Last day out in Bangkok – we took a taxi to Siam Square area – we saw the odd sky scraper and a film crew!

Can you believe it! We walked right out of the taxi and past a film crew! Again!!

In the one of the Malls the ceiling and steps had digital screens showing films on them! Maybe they have these in the UK but we don’t get out much in the UK lol!

This toilet sign was to the point! Nothing like you come across in our country where we have silhouettes of gentleman in suits with bowler hats on and ladies in long Victorian frilly dresses and hats tied under their chin with ribbon. No, they just say it like is is here! Lol!

The same goes for this little dude, love him! No Donald Duck type modesty for this ‘little’ chap who is about to be in for a nasty surprise at any moment it seems! Lol! Glen said maybe that is why he is called ‘Mr P’ lol!

On our last full day in Bangkok we visited Dusit Palace grounds and the Mansion House etc.

The Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall and other buildings in the grounds of the Dusit Palace where they display national treasures of Royal pageantry and arts and crafts. Blah Blah. The art was exquisite made from gold Nielloware, damascene enamel and gold, silver and wood carvings. Most had been embellished with cut Beetle wings….. Yes Beetle wings!! It’s an ancient Thai technique using the iridescent wings and exoskeleton of a Sternocera Beetle. The beetles have a short life span in their adult form and die in their thousands under a ….(forgotten the name) tree, so are easily gathered. Apparently they only collect and use beetles that die naturally. (Phew that’s a relief) It put me in mind of the few thundery days in summer when the flying ants come out in the UK and then die shortly afterwards….I can’t imagine our royal family wearing any jewelry or having any object d’art on their mantelpiece made from the wings of those little fellas some how! Lol! The wings of Sternocera Beetles are beautiful of course and were also intricately woven into Yan Lipao vines by the way (smile). The model boats and thrones had the iconic tiered umbrellas as they call them. There was a gigantic embroidered screen/wall hanging using the Thai technique called ‘pak soy’ (I thought that was a vegetable – wink) anyway I could go on but suffice to say we were very impressed (smile)

The buildings were also wonderful. There was one that looked like St Paul’s Cathedral but looked like it had been decorated inside by an Italian artist. Maybe St Paul’s was decorated by an Italian artist….. I am not explaining it very well but trust me it is worth a visit if ever you come to Bangkok. It’s typical isn’t it, I can’t find the words to describe what we saw that afternoon and we were not allowed to take any photos at all to show you! What we were allowed to do was pose for a photo in this ‘gold’ picture frame outside.

I copied the pose that all of the Asian tourists were striking when they had their photo taken in the frame. I thought how lovely it was, it obviously meant something to them (although we couldn’t understand the Thai writing on it to know why) however Glen just said it was the Thai version of our wooden boards at seaside towns that are painted like a beach scene with a fat lady holding an ice-cream stood next to her little skinny husband who has a knotted hanky on his head….. Sometimes he spoils special moments for me! Lol!

And finally….a random note. We bought some shower gel……

Well I might be ‘White’ but I’m not ‘Firm’ So I am definitely using this.

Not only do women here (and in Egypt actually) use products to try to whiten their skin but they actually wear white foundation! whereas us Europeans wear tan/beige coloured foundation. Neither race have bodies to match their/our face colour. Crazy.

So this “Be Nice – firm and white” shower gel is getting the full testing as often as possible in the hope that their claim to make people white is poppy cock but their claim that it will make me firm is true (smile)