week 34

Its spring vacation already?! Wow!! Time really has flown these last few weeks! This week was a good week because I had lots of fun things to look forward to and do. I went to the gym on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday which was needed due to my food consumption…

On Tuesday I had organized a meal at Zeniyas in fukui with 17 people. I had never been to this Italian restaurant but I had heard good things. I wasn’t disappointed either. The food was amazing! It was great to chat to people although it was too crowded and we were a bit squashed in. I also got some lovely presents and I had happy birthday sung to me with cheesecake and marshmallows with candles on top! We then got to dunk the marshmallows into the orgasmic chocolate fountain. I had to be restrained from putting my face in..it was a great meal. I then went back to john and kims with andy and Katie. Kim had made a wonderful spongecake with the best icing ever, so we ate that and had margheritas. I felt sooo sick!

On Wednesday we had a day off in aid of Vernal Equinox- of course. So I got up late, went to the gym and then did chores and shopping to get ready for spring vacation. In the evening I then taught the ladies from taiko. On Thursday I finished school a little early because the teachers had a meeting- im not a teacher btw!!! So I made use of it and went to the gym before meeting with Hitomi at 6pm. I had been invited to dinner at Hitomi’s sister’s house. She was married and had a 4mth old baby. They lived in anew house in fukui which was nice. The evening was fantastic. The food was delicious and I was given ume shu too! It was nice talking to the family and seeing them interact and behave around each other. The baby was really cute, although he cried for a good while becausehe had never seen a non Japanese face before!! I felt awful! But during dinner he suddenly became accustomed to me and let me pick him up and play with him. He had a right old giggle and everyone was so happy that he suddenly liked me! So the cameras were whipped out for this unmissable photo opportunity of the baby with a gaijin!!

On Friday there were no lessons at school, just cleaning and the closing ceremony. So I sat in the staffroom for a good while just being excited about my trip that evening! The day was pretty non eventful but luckily I was allowed to go home after our bento lunch, so I made use of my time before leaving, by going to the gym and then finishing packing. And then the journey began….

Once again, writing in hindsight is quite boring and takes forever so I will do a recap and write about the most important and memorable bits.

Saturday 24th - arrival in Bangkok at 5.30am
- feeling very sleepy but excited about spending my first bday abroad - I love the mix between feeling really excited, anxious and a bit scared too!　It felt awfully surreal to be in a different country again. Its strange how japan is home to me now and feels like the norm.
- The airport was amazing! It is new, massive and very modern.
- Jill and I waited in a bar and had our first fruit juices before heading to find accommodation because it was a bit too early to be knocking on doors.
- I managed to haggle a taxi to take us to the backpacker area from 900Bht down to 400Bht! I do love haggling, although I have to add here that I don’t try and screw anyone over! I do realise this is still quite a poor country, so I try and reach a middle ground so neither I or the seller is being screwed by the other.
- The journey to koh san road was a little odd. Not only was the taxi driver a little bit crazy ( shaving his stubble, cleaning out his ears, trimming his nails and nose hair and occasionally hitting his face all whilst driving along rather fast) but the city itself was a lot cleaner and more modern and developed than I expected. There were sky scrappers, nice cars and quite good roads. I was surprised, although I realise that the poorer areas are more hidden from the tourist routes. It is good to see however, the promise and signs of development.
- When we got to the road where we were going to try and find accommodation, it was 7.30am and we were already dripping with sweat. We wandered around little lanes looking for cheap and ok accommodation. We finally settled on a place called ‘live good’ which had a private bathroom, air conditioning, fan and added cockroaches all for about 3 punds a night.
- After a quick freshening up session, we are out again and travelling by tuk tuk to Dusit park where we hoped to see some thai dancing. Unfortunately we were told that there was no performance and so instead we settled on birthday fun at…. Bangkok zoo!!
- A bit odd, granted, but it was fun anyway! In fact it was a super spacious, clean and well kept zoo. The animals seemed to be in good conditions and the zoo was massive. It turned out to be a fun morning messing about with Jill, looking at many random animals and capped off with a pedal boat ride! - Next we hopped back in a taxi and spent ages in smoggy, boiling traffic jams. We finally arrived at China town. There is a large population of Chinese residents in Bangkok and the china town is characterized by wholesale shops. We didn’t spend too long here because we were too hot, sweaty and tired to be in a bustling area where we couldn’t buy anything unless we wanted 20 of them. But seeing this different area to Bangkok gave me the impression that Bangkok really is a very diverse place. Even the signs in this area seemed to be in Chinese.
- I had a small wander around the stalls on Koh San road- which was much more alive than it had been at 7am (surprisingly!). it was full of young, BEAUTIFUL tourists (many Brits), bars, restaurants, souvenir shops, clothes stalls, pad thai sellers, fresh fruit sellers, Boots, and a couple of combinis too!!
- I then joined jill for a quick nap before we went out for our first thai meal – and my first thai birthday meal! We sat sipping cool cocktails, eating divine coconut, chicken, lemon and spiced soup, watching the hoards of BEAUTIFUL people walk pass and contemplate our arrival! It was a chilled but memorable birthday!
25th
– after a great nights sleep that was definitely well deserved, we were up reasonably early to do a day of sightseeing. I started the day with a fruit lassi in an amazing vegetarian restaurant close to where we were staying. We then walked south to the Grand Palace.
– It was absolutely stunning, but soooo hot and crowded. The walls were shimmering mosaic of glass and mirror with masses of gold leaf scattered around. The spectrum of colours that the sun bounced off of were wonderful. The architecture was super and looked brand new to be honest! There were many Buddhist statues around the grounds and numerous buildings, wats, stupas and a building which housed the Emerald Buddha. This was a lot smaller than expected, but the coolness and the atmosphere in this gold clad room with painted walls and extravagant décor, was worth the 10 min view. – We went to wat pho after this by foot. Here we saw the largest recling Buddha. I have to admit he was rather a bigun! He was gold and looked very relaxed! I loved the decoration on his feet too. I had a walk around the grounds of this wat. There were a number of gardens, stupas and many gold Buddha statues in glass cases. – Next we had a look at Wat Arun from the other side of the river. It was very similar to the wats seen in Cambodia. Very Khmer. – We then decided to be extravagant and take an air conditioned taxi up to the weekend market. This ride turned out to be not so extravagant, and we realised that the tuk tuks must hike up their prices for tourists. Therefore taixs all the way from now on!!
– The weekend market blew my mind!!! Now I am a girl who likes shopping, but this was incredible. I have never seen such a massive market. It was the size of a town! Very well kept and anything you could want to purchase was available here- but you had to find it in the maze! The problem with it however was that it was so jammed with thai and foreign people making it frustrating to walk around. But amazing to see!!
– That evening we had falafel from a street vendor on Koh San, followed by a walk and then back to the hostel to read!! Wohoo raving in Bangkok!