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Bangkok In general, people seem to be more affluent wearing the latest
fashions, and spending money shopping and dining out. In downtown
Bangkok, every American fast food chain is represented, but we bypassed
those and found great Thai cuisine at bargain prices. We ate 3 times
at the 6th floor food court of the MBK building with over 50 food
stalls serving regional Thai cuisine as well as other Asian dishes.
Some of our favorites were Japanese Gyozas, Chinese duck, Muslam yellow curry, Pad Thai, and for dessert, yummy mangos and "sticky rice". A meal for both of us including drinks is about $6.00. The only American chain we gratefully patronized was Starbucks for our morning cappuccino fix. Italy spoiled us. (Peets where are you?) The term sunny disposition must have been coined with the Thai people in mind. They are extremely friendly and helpful and always quick with a smiling "hello". Even the street hawkers are not as annoyingly persistent as in the other parts of the world, which makes travelling here such a joy.
South Thailand Beaches We spent many hours sitting on the deck watching the gorgeous sunrises and reading novels. Heaven! This town boasts the most Italian restaruants per capita in Thailand and we had a great meal of Caprese salad, veal with Parma and Fontina cheese, and spinach and ricotta ravioli. We treated ourselves to a very expensive yet mediocre carafe of red wine. (Asia is not the place for wine drinkers)
After 4 days, we loaded up the bikes and rode south to Ao Noi. Because of the heat we left by 7:00AM. Thanks to a strong tail wind, by 3:00PM we were sitting on our terrace sipping cool drinks at the Ao Noi Bungalows over 110 km south of Hua Hin. Our spacious fan cooled room was $15/night and was right on the beach. Aside from another couple, we had the entire beach to ourselves. Susie and David were staying there on vacation from their teaching assignment in Xian, China, home to 6 million people and the famous terra cotta warriors. Over several meals, they shared facinating details of their past 4 1/2 year at the university. For example, in one dorm room where they teach there are 2,000 girls living on 6 floors with only one bathroom and wall plug per floor. The students are not allowed to form close friendships or interact informally. It was interesting to hear how Susie and David have to walk a fine line between answering students questions honestly and saying anything that the government might consider subversive (and get them kicked out of the country).
After 3 days, we cycled another 110 km south to the Suan Huang Resort in Bang Saphan Yoi. En route we saw a truck carrying 4 elephants pass us. Later on we caught up with them just as the handlers were loading them back on the truck after working in the fields. Since the bed of the truck was about 6 ft high,they accomplished this by placing a series of old drums to be used as stepping stones. It was amazing to see a full sized elephant balanced on an rusty empty 55 gallon drum. The last to be loaded was a baby elephant who had to use a stool as the intial step. To maximaize our time at the beach, we decided to train back to
Bangkok for our flight to Hanoi. By looking at the schedule we knew
that our 9:18 PM train would only stop for one minute at the station.
After loading our bikes in the first car (the baggage car) we had
to make our way through 14 cars to our seats. We first passed the
sleeper cars with aisles crowded with bundles of luggage and boxes.
Then through the closed dining cars where the employees were asleep
on makeshift beds of rows of chairs. After that we passed through
2 cars of 2nd class upholstered individual recling seats. Finally,
we arrived at our 3rd class car with double straight back bench
seats. The cars had many more people than there were seats.
Hanoi
We watched a free concert which included traditional Vietnamese folk dancing, a younger female singer doing a rendition of Harry Belafontes "Kingston Town" in Vietnamese, and a man doing humorous sound effects. We must admit it felt strange when he imitated planes flying overhead dropping bombs. The next day we plunged into the chaos of Hanoi traffic and quickly learned the rules of the road. Easy to remember since there is only one - don't run into anyone! Jim says "it's nice to not have to sit and wait at those tedious traffic lights, even when they are red." Maria says "Oh my God" repeatedly.
We biked to several of the "American War" sights, the heavily bombed Long Bien bridge and the imfamous "Hanoi Hilton" where countless POWs were held and tortured. It saddened us to think of the tremendous loss of lives on both sides and it is hard to reconcile the images of the war with the openness and freindliness which which we are treated. It is also ironic that prices for good and services are typically quoted not in Vietnamese Dong, but in American Dollars. New Ones on Us
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