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We are now in Bangkok

Once we woke up from what seemed to be the best and most needed nap of our lives, we got out of the room in search of food. But first the room was perfect, it was clean, big, had a fridge, a boiler (came handy for noodle cup), a T.V and a couch. All that for 21$ per night! The first 2 days we slept, mainly because I caught a cold in the plane and had a fever.

That's where the 7/11 saved our lives (I am slightly dramatic but still). Yes, they have the usual convenience store things like; snack, water, juice and ramen, but they also have that nice selection of grill cheese sandwich. That whole section is refrigerated and once you pay it, they make the grill cheese for you, so it’s warm and perfect. I lived out of that and chicken noodle soup for 2 days. (don’t worry once the cold was over we started tasting local delicacy) But I am serious, 7/11 are magical lands where our poor western stomac could take a break from the spiciness of the local food. (Here’s more information about 7/11 and how it can save you trip to thailand)

The first time we went out of the room for other reason than in search of food, it was to visit the Princess Mother Parc which was a nice small parc near our apartment and for us the perfect way to get used to the heat. The parc was lovely and it even had a small museum explaining the life of the Princess mother. (which seems like a really nice women. It shows how she dedicated her life to help and improve the quality of life of the citizen of her country. They really love her for it and called her the people’s mother)

The heat didn’t seem that bad, so the next day we kept exploring around our accommodation, learning where we were, how the street worked and how to order coffee (they have really good coffee everywhere and if you are lucky it will come with a moo moo on it - see picture)
We had had a few mishap ordering food that was way too spicy or ordering food they refused to serves us, for good reason since it was probably way too hot for us or too weird. (when a waiter tells you not to eat something or insist you eat one specific plate, thrust them, they know….) We eventually used an app that translates pictures to get around menu better (Here’s a link to more information about communicating in Asia)

On day 5, we decided to go shopping to the MBK center, what an experience! It’s 6 floor of condensed stands, selling a mixt of new and old item. I was happy because I was shopping and Alexis was happy because he could negotiate the hell out of everything. To get there, we decided to walk for 1h (yeah again, I promise, we learn eventually) Walking 1h would probably have been fine but unfortunately we had to take the ferry to get to the MBK center (there’s a big river in the middle of Bangkok and not a lot of bridge… (Here’s more info about ferry) But since it was sunday… the ferry was closed and the 1h walk quickly transformed into a 2h walk… It would have cost us around 200 bath (8$) to use a taxi (Here's more info about taxi). After 1h30 walk in the heat, Gabby gave up and we took a cab for the last few kilometers. We finally arrived at the mall, ate and started wandering around the giant maze that is the MBK center.

I describe it has a shopping trip but seriously it’s more like a cultural experience. If you are traveling with a giant man (or any non thai-size man) every tailor in the center will try to stop you, shake your hand and try to sell you a suit, so we got followed around by many hopeful tailors. We knew that center existed before we left Canada and purposely didn’t bought some article for our trip from canada in the hope of finding them for cheaper there.

We ended up with one electric rasoir (600 baht) (Alexis’s beard needed handling), a sewing kit (50 bath), a pillow shape like a dinosaur (150 bath) (I am 5 and aware of it) and a few other nik nak. Our day ended with a good haul and tired feet, we always underestimate the amount of walk involved in shopping, especially when the shopping center has 6 huge floor…