Truce?

The next day wasn’t much better. Well there was no rain. So that is something. Since it was Cori’s last day, I let her decide what to do. She decided on Victory Monument and then a park close by. Victory Monument was quick, we could just view it from the skytrain. So off to the park that turned out to be a military base and people aren’t allowed in. Frustrated by the 30 minute walk to the park, Cori decides to get a tuk tuk back to the skytrain. The tuk tuk driver takes us to the sky hotel instead. I think this may have been the last straw between Bangkok and Cori. They were not friends. We found our way to a skytrain and then headed to the malls that seemed like something interesting. But I think we were just done at that point. Plus Cori had a ridiculously early flight so we went back to hotel so Cori could pack and get everything in order. After packing, we got some dinner and watched a movie on my laptop. Cori left at 3:30 in the am. I said bye and went back to sleep. 

My train to the beaches didn’t leave until around 5 so I met up with my sister’s friend I’d met a couple of times who was living in Bangkok. Maybe he could show me around, and Bangkok and I could be friends again. So we met at the skytrain closest to my hotel and decided what to do. He was a little sad I had already ‘done’ the touristy things. I was sad I didn’t think to ask him to show us to them. Maybe it would have been less of a disaster. Though I got a good story out of huh? That is what adventures are—things gone terribly wrong and then seem funny afterwards. I’ve had plenty of adventures. Anyway. The first stop was a mall.  On the way, I explained I hadn’t had any street food in Thailand, which apparently was quite blasphemous. I think it became his personal mission to get me to try as much street food as possible. We stopped and got frozen ovaltine. So delicious. Pretty much iced hot chocolate. Then we were at the mall. Cori and I went to the ritzy mall with all of the overpriced stores. Jake took me to the one that had Thai clothes, and accessories. I was tempted to buy some plastic fruit headbands or the ones with the massive stuffed bird on top for friends (Nikki). Classy.

After the mall, we went to lunch. There was a restaurant near Jake’s where he of course ordered because I don’t speak Thai. The food was really good but like most of Thailand’s food very spicy. I have a knack for picking out the spiciest things on the menu. I suppose it is a gift. America gives a false sense of security when it comes to spicy foods because Asian restaurants tone down the spicy for white people. In Thailand, not so much. We even ordered it not spicy. If that was the non-spicy version I don’t even want to try the real version. Although, I handle my spice a little better than Jake. He teared up a bit. I tried not to judge. After lunch we went to the Thailand culture center, which he had never been to and seemed interesting. On the way, he bought lily plant pods that have seeds you have to peel and eat. Quite the task. Again. More street food. The culture center turned out to be closed because it was lunchtime, so we tried feeding the fish some lily seeds. They didn’t like them. After that we went to Chinatown and went to another temple. There, Jake got chrysanthemum juice or as he called it flower juice. It was incredibly sweet. Like when you are a kid and make kool-aid and 1 cup of sugar can’t possibly be right so you add 4…sweet. I couldn’t handle it. So Jake took the diabetic hit for the team and finished mine.

 After the brief visit to Chinatown, we somehow ended up in the red light district. It was during the day so it wasn’t bad. I wouldn’t have noticed really well minus the one side street that had all of the exotic dancer signs. We quickly made our way to the skytrain where we were going to ride past THE robot building. Jake had been talking about it all day. On the train, he pointed out exactly where it was going to be and the best view and see how that part looks like bolts? The highlight of the Bangkok tour— buildings that look like robots. Well robot buildings and street food.

After that we headed back to my skytrain stop, said goodbye, and I went to the hotel to gather my things and get to the train station for my solo trip to the beach leaving Bangkok on somewhat agreeable terms.