April 5

Note: The MBK event actually happened this day. For some reason I had the story in the yesterday’s post.

Today I slept in until 5am at least. Its gonna take a while to shake off this jet lag. My hosts were told of a good restaurant for brunch nearby, called The Emporium if I recall correctly, so we decided to hit it up. On our way there we walk by a mall (remember they’re on every corner?) and there is literally a line (like at a theme park) of people waiting to get into the mall when they open at 11. Wow. But anyhow, back to the Emporium. It has a hipster, rustic, back in the 50s feel to it. The food was fantastic. Eggs, sausage, bacon, streaky bacon (aka ‘Merican bacon) and yogurt with fresh fruit. The only thing that threw me off was the orange juice which had a darker orange/red color to it and a funkier more acidic taste to it. I didn’t like it. With a full belly, my hosts needing a nap and the weather outside hitting nearly 100*F (38*C), I figure this is a good time to try a Thai massage. These places are everywhere, heck there were 3 within a block of my hosts’ place.

Thai Massage: No, nothing shady happened. Haha. I walk into the place and they instantly and wittingly know that I don’t speak Thai. I wonder what gave that away. They pull out a laminate that shows the different options for massages in English. I point to the traditional Thai massage for one hour which costs a whole 250 baht. That’s right, $7.80 for a one hour massage. This might turn into a daily event. The lady comes to the front and leads me to their massage hall. It is basically a bunch of floor beds on elevated platforms (1 foot or 30 cm up) on both sides of the aisle. Each bed is separated by curtains; I say there are about 20 beds in this room in total. She opens the curtain for me and gives me my massage clothes to change into. I, being the fool that I am, walk up on the platform with my shoes on to which I instantly hear foreign anxious noises behind me. Whoops! I was supposed to take my shoes off before stepping up. I quickly react and step back down to the laughter of the two ladies who work there. They probably had a bet on whether I would do that or not. I take my shoes off, hop back up and change into the funky clothes they gave me. 30 seconds later, the lady shows up with a tiny tub to clean my feet. Good thing I didn’t do this after a full day of walking in the sauna outside, that would have sucked for her. I don’t really know how to describe the next hour except for this lady worked her magic and not only with her hands, but elbows, body, and feet. Yes, she did walk on my back (that was interesting) and she did try, while I was laying on my stomach, grabbing my arms and pulling me back into, as I can best describe it, a yoga cobra pose (yes I had to look it up). Let’s just say that this did not work, my body doesn’t move that way, plus I think I weighed twice as much as her. We both just laughed as she gave up. She walks me out, gives me a tea and waits by the door (I believe waiting for a tip) while I drink the tea. I awkwardly chug half of the tea (she was just standing there looking at me), pay up, give her a tip, and am on my way. All in all I was a bit sore afterwards.

Jim Thompson House: I meet up with my host again, and we decide to go check out the Jim Thompson house. This is the place of an American fellow who is credited with saving Thailand’s silk industry back in the 50’s and 60’s and who also mysteriously disappeared in the late 60s while visiting a friend in Malaysia at the peak of his business. His house is pretty massive and they turned it into a touristy place with a restaurant and shops. We took a guided tour with a lady that, if I had to guess, didn’t really speak english but just memorized the tour speech lines in English and repeated them. I say this because I tried asking a couple of questions and she would just look at me funny. Oh well. The tour was OK, but it was too focused on the paintings or statues that he collected and had in his mansion. To be honest, I was more interested in his business. How is the silk made, how did his business work, how did they export? This was only 10-15% of the tour. However, they do have a man outside pulling the silk from the cocoons and two women weaving it next to him. This was actually the simplest, yet most intriguing part of the tour for me. Seeing the old man grab a strand from about 20 cocoons in warm water and spinning them together to make a string was really neat.
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MBK: (pulled from yesterday’s post) We hit MBK after the John Thompson house. MBK is kind of like a mall, but a 2000 shops on 8 floors kind of mall. And shops range from legit stuff at prices higher than US prices to knock off electronics at prices so low you think perhaps it is a scam. Being the dork that I am, I request we go check out some of the electronics. Holy crap are Beats (by Dre & Monster -we’ll see how that lawsuit goes) items popular here. I find a beats pill and they are asking for 440 baht for this. Let me repeat that, 440 baht! Hmm, let me test this thing out. It has bluetooth, I’ll try pairing my phone. I hit the button and a voice chimes, “The bluetooth dewice is a weady for paiwing” in the worst english accent ever. Uh oh…but it pairs with my phone. I play some music and, wow, this thing isn’t too bad. I offer the lady 300 baht, but she tells me can’t go that low. We go back and forth and agree on 380 baht. She pulls out the item in the box from behind the counter and I’m still skeptical so I ask if I can open it up and play with it before I take it. She agrees. I open the item, pair with the pill and make sure it works like the sample one. Everything checks out. Beats pill acquired….for the equivalent of TWELVE dollars! A real one costs $200. Even if this thing breaks before I get back stateside, it will be a good purchase. I look for some lenses for my camera, but the one I wanted was almost $700 so I figure I’ll just wait until I get back home. Anyhow, if you go to Bangkok, go to the MBK. It’s pretty cool.

After this, we made our way to the mall close to my buddy’s place and hit the food court for food. The food courts are insane; an entire floor dedicated to food. We decide on Ramen. I ordered my meal with medium spice and that was a mistake. It was delicious, but my mouth was on FIRE. I consumed a coke and a bottle of water while eating that ramen. My stomach was rumbling the rest of the night.

The rest of the night was relaxing while I waited for my sister to arrive. She was able to make her way to the street my buddy lived on, but ended up a couple of blocks away. She even walked in the wrong direction. I finally talk her towards the correct direction and see her in the distance, luggage in tow. She looks like a walking zombie; I guess that’s what 30 hour flights do to a traveler. She crosses the street without looking the correct way for traffic (remember opposite drive?) and I yell at her that a car is coming behind her. The zombie doesn’t even react, she’s dead tired. She better get some good sleep tonight cause tomorrow is going to be jam packed.

Cheers.

Line to get into mall Emporium Breakfast Silk Cocoons Tree at Thompson House Silk Weaving MBK Spicy Ramen Hot Star - this place was always packed More Malls