Saturday, February 17, 2007
Koh Kret
Jan. 7th
Koh Kret is a very small island in the middle of the Chao Praya River. It is one of the OTOP projects and from what we saw it is a very successful area. To get to Koh Kret we rode the BTS to Mo Chit to meet our friend, Game, who had the entire day planned. From the BTS we took a taxi to the dock. You cannot drive a car all the way to the island because the island has a s
trict no car rule, so instead of a bridge there is a ferryboat.
Once on the island a cement walkway circles the island, making walking and riding bikes around the island a perfect pass time. The villagers of Koh Kret have a long market surrounding a long stretch of the walkway where you can find just about anything you could ever want at a reasonably cheap price. The village’s OTOP project is
pottery and they so they have a wide selection of pottery to buy from. Once you get tired of walking rest areas are everywhere and restaurants serve delicious food like, ping gai (Thai BBQ), sum tam (spicy papayya salad), and lot of other yummy treats.
Food surrounds you as you walk down the market road. If you are still hungry you can sit down at a desert bar and have five steamed coconut desert things made in cups smaller than a shot glass, for 10 baht for five cups. Thirsty? Well all of the drinks come in clay cups. The crowded market seems to stop abruptly as if at the end o
f a cliff that plummets into farm land amazingly quickly. Conveniently the last real shop before drink stands is a bike rental. When we got there we all had to check all of our bikes especially carefully, riding bikes in Thailand is very different than riding bikes in the U.S. The most noticeable difference is helmets, there are no such thing as helmets here, unless you bring your own from home. The ride through the countryside is relaxing and you can hardly tell that you are near Bangkok.
Once we returned our bikes a boat was waiting for us to circle the island. We made four stops all together, two of them were at candy shops, one was at a temple/park, and the last was to eat more food at Daily Queen, not to be mistaken with Dairy Queen. The first two sweet shops were over flowing with salty sweets. I my self do not like most of them, but they have something for everyone. The temple/park is a fancy temple with a very large park next to it. The park is on the river and is a spacious green park with
miniature temples and giant koi ponds. The park is virtually a smaller version of Lumpini Park, but with a bigger play ground. When we were there we fed the fish at the docks. The catfish we fed were nearly as long as Nick's legs and were fed often by people like us. Our last stop on the boat trip was at Daily Queen. Daily Queen as we found out we to go home is a giant restaurant! It is gianormous and we only saw the first floor! Not only is it giant, but you can also get anything including sushi.
As we stumbled out of our taxis at Bann Yoswadi dead tried from constant eating and exercising we all realized that Koh Kret is a very nice place to spend a day.
--Gioia Spatafora
Koh Kret is a very small island in the middle of the Chao Praya River. It is one of the OTOP projects and from what we saw it is a very successful area. To get to Koh Kret we rode the BTS to Mo Chit to meet our friend, Game, who had the entire day planned. From the BTS we took a taxi to the dock. You cannot drive a car all the way to the island because the island has a s
trict no car rule, so instead of a bridge there is a ferryboat.Once on the island a cement walkway circles the island, making walking and riding bikes around the island a perfect pass time. The villagers of Koh Kret have a long market surrounding a long stretch of the walkway where you can find just about anything you could ever want at a reasonably cheap price. The village’s OTOP project is
pottery and they so they have a wide selection of pottery to buy from. Once you get tired of walking rest areas are everywhere and restaurants serve delicious food like, ping gai (Thai BBQ), sum tam (spicy papayya salad), and lot of other yummy treats.Food surrounds you as you walk down the market road. If you are still hungry you can sit down at a desert bar and have five steamed coconut desert things made in cups smaller than a shot glass, for 10 baht for five cups. Thirsty? Well all of the drinks come in clay cups. The crowded market seems to stop abruptly as if at the end o
f a cliff that plummets into farm land amazingly quickly. Conveniently the last real shop before drink stands is a bike rental. When we got there we all had to check all of our bikes especially carefully, riding bikes in Thailand is very different than riding bikes in the U.S. The most noticeable difference is helmets, there are no such thing as helmets here, unless you bring your own from home. The ride through the countryside is relaxing and you can hardly tell that you are near Bangkok.
Once we returned our bikes a boat was waiting for us to circle the island. We made four stops all together, two of them were at candy shops, one was at a temple/park, and the last was to eat more food at Daily Queen, not to be mistaken with Dairy Queen. The first two sweet shops were over flowing with salty sweets. I my self do not like most of them, but they have something for everyone. The temple/park is a fancy temple with a very large park next to it. The park is on the river and is a spacious green park with
miniature temples and giant koi ponds. The park is virtually a smaller version of Lumpini Park, but with a bigger play ground. When we were there we fed the fish at the docks. The catfish we fed were nearly as long as Nick's legs and were fed often by people like us. Our last stop on the boat trip was at Daily Queen. Daily Queen as we found out we to go home is a giant restaurant! It is gianormous and we only saw the first floor! Not only is it giant, but you can also get anything including sushi.As we stumbled out of our taxis at Bann Yoswadi dead tried from constant eating and exercising we all realized that Koh Kret is a very nice place to spend a day.
--Gioia Spatafora
New Year's Day
Jan 1st
Last night was an eventful night in Bangkok, one that included at least seven bombs. At approximately 6:30pm, seven small bombs were detonated nearly simultaneously around Bangkok. They were relatively small and we did not know they had occurred until after the fact. One was about 2 km north of us and one was about 2 km south of us. While we were never in any danger, three people did die from the explosions.
We left the apartment around 6:45pm and went to a restaurant, Tee Sud, which is near Victory Monument where one of the bombs was set off. There were numerous police but we still did not know what had happened. You have to remember that it was New Year's Eve, so plenty of fireworks were going off and there were people every where. We arrived at Tee Sud Restaurant which was owned and operated by our friends Doug and Yim. I said "was" as Dec. 31, 2006 was the last night of the restaurant and we were meeting some friends (Nigel, Rung and Ray) there for one last meal. Tee Sud has been a renowned eatery on Soi Rang Nam and will be dearly missed by all. We wish Doug and Yim all the best in whatever 2007 holds in store for them.
At the restaurant we learned about the bombings. It was quite strange and unsettling. No one really knew how big they were, how many there were, or who was responsible. The first two questions were eventually answered but the question of responsibility still remains. Some say the Muslim insurgents in the south, although these bombs were small and not characteristic of their style. Some say the ousted Prime Minister, or the current government itself, or may even the police. The reality is no one has been brought to justice and it seems unlikely that any one will be.
We had originally planned on going to some of the New Year's fireworks ceremonies, but all major public gatherings were canceled due to the bombings. So after dinner we eventually made our way back to the apartment and glued ourselves to the BBC and CNN. After realizing the news agencies really did not know anything either, we watched some fireworks from our balcony for awhile and then called it a night.
An auspicious start to 2007.
Last night was an eventful night in Bangkok, one that included at least seven bombs. At approximately 6:30pm, seven small bombs were detonated nearly simultaneously around Bangkok. They were relatively small and we did not know they had occurred until after the fact. One was about 2 km north of us and one was about 2 km south of us. While we were never in any danger, three people did die from the explosions.
We left the apartment around 6:45pm and went to a restaurant, Tee Sud, which is near Victory Monument where one of the bombs was set off. There were numerous police but we still did not know what had happened. You have to remember that it was New Year's Eve, so plenty of fireworks were going off and there were people every where. We arrived at Tee Sud Restaurant which was owned and operated by our friends Doug and Yim. I said "was" as Dec. 31, 2006 was the last night of the restaurant and we were meeting some friends (Nigel, Rung and Ray) there for one last meal. Tee Sud has been a renowned eatery on Soi Rang Nam and will be dearly missed by all. We wish Doug and Yim all the best in whatever 2007 holds in store for them.
At the restaurant we learned about the bombings. It was quite strange and unsettling. No one really knew how big they were, how many there were, or who was responsible. The first two questions were eventually answered but the question of responsibility still remains. Some say the Muslim insurgents in the south, although these bombs were small and not characteristic of their style. Some say the ousted Prime Minister, or the current government itself, or may even the police. The reality is no one has been brought to justice and it seems unlikely that any one will be.
We had originally planned on going to some of the New Year's fireworks ceremonies, but all major public gatherings were canceled due to the bombings. So after dinner we eventually made our way back to the apartment and glued ourselves to the BBC and CNN. After realizing the news agencies really did not know anything either, we watched some fireworks from our balcony for awhile and then called it a night.
An auspicious start to 2007.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Christmas Day
Christmas Day
by Gioia
(Due to the hard drive crash, there are no pictures for this story.)
Christmas morning we all woke up earlier than usual so that we could open our presents and say goodbye to Jeff. A plot had been hatched before to wake Jeff up with something we had come across in the grocery store: Silly String! So, around 6:30am, three hooting children used a cold rush of plasticised, artificially multi-colored Silly String to jolt Jeff awake to celebrate Christmas with us. The shock made Jeff so wide-awake that he was plenty prepared for his 14 hour flight back home to Washington state! (You're welcome, Jeff.)
Since Jeff was set to leave our apartment around 11am for the airport, we opened our presents early and had a nice breakfast of tropical fruits and phad Thai from across the street. The presents were very different than in years past because there were not really many surprises this time. Since we are together nearly ALL THE TIME, we have usually been with each other when we were shopping. It was kind of fun to open things and remember where we were or what we were doing when they were purchased. We had also forgotten that some things had been bought so long ago. Our favorite gifts were the iTunes cards Jeff had brought us from the U.S. and new books.
Before Jeff took off, a "Christmas Swim" was called for. We had a nice dip in the pool and soaked up some sun. We took some photos to put on this site and to remember our sunny Christmas. We were going to take some pictures of Jeff at the pool with the Brazilian models to send to a jealous Bill, but they were not around that early in the day.
After putting Jeff in a cab around eleven, the rest of the day was spent reading the books and building the Legos we had gotten. Once we were finally dragged away from our new toys, we realized that lunchtime had passed by unnoticed and now the house smelled of Christmas dinner. The long-awaited turkey that we had missed at Thanksgiving was eaten with enough left over for sandwiches later. Our long, loved Christmas Day was almost over. The food had been devoured, the ice cream eaten too. We just had to watch a Christmas movie and head off to bed. All together, it was a rather lazy day and was a bit nippy at 85*F, (some Thais even put on their scarves and mittens!), with some smog instead of snow.
by Gioia
(Due to the hard drive crash, there are no pictures for this story.)
Christmas morning we all woke up earlier than usual so that we could open our presents and say goodbye to Jeff. A plot had been hatched before to wake Jeff up with something we had come across in the grocery store: Silly String! So, around 6:30am, three hooting children used a cold rush of plasticised, artificially multi-colored Silly String to jolt Jeff awake to celebrate Christmas with us. The shock made Jeff so wide-awake that he was plenty prepared for his 14 hour flight back home to Washington state! (You're welcome, Jeff.)
Since Jeff was set to leave our apartment around 11am for the airport, we opened our presents early and had a nice breakfast of tropical fruits and phad Thai from across the street. The presents were very different than in years past because there were not really many surprises this time. Since we are together nearly ALL THE TIME, we have usually been with each other when we were shopping. It was kind of fun to open things and remember where we were or what we were doing when they were purchased. We had also forgotten that some things had been bought so long ago. Our favorite gifts were the iTunes cards Jeff had brought us from the U.S. and new books.
Before Jeff took off, a "Christmas Swim" was called for. We had a nice dip in the pool and soaked up some sun. We took some photos to put on this site and to remember our sunny Christmas. We were going to take some pictures of Jeff at the pool with the Brazilian models to send to a jealous Bill, but they were not around that early in the day.
After putting Jeff in a cab around eleven, the rest of the day was spent reading the books and building the Legos we had gotten. Once we were finally dragged away from our new toys, we realized that lunchtime had passed by unnoticed and now the house smelled of Christmas dinner. The long-awaited turkey that we had missed at Thanksgiving was eaten with enough left over for sandwiches later. Our long, loved Christmas Day was almost over. The food had been devoured, the ice cream eaten too. We just had to watch a Christmas movie and head off to bed. All together, it was a rather lazy day and was a bit nippy at 85*F, (some Thais even put on their scarves and mittens!), with some smog instead of snow.
New Years' Update
Hey Everybody!
We had a computer hard drive crash on New Years' Day and that has caused us a lot of trouble and time to recover our electronic communication. As a result, we have taken a long break from the blog postings. Luckily, due to the brilliance of our friend and IT specialist Chris Sullivan, I am happy to report that everything from the old hard drive has been recovered and will be waiting for us when we get home. For now, I will try to catch you all up on what we have been doing for all of January over the next few days, so stay tuned. Also, if you have not heard from us this year, please send us an email to spat19@comcast.net so we can rebuild our address book. That would be very much appreciated!
Although I am in a deep state of denial, our time here is rapidly drawing to an end. We have about 3 weeks before we head to Australia for some fun and sun and then on to Oregon on March first. We are looking forward to seeing all of our friends, neighbors, and our dog, but we are sad to be ending this amazing adventure. I hope you have all enjoyed reading about our escapades and have maybe learned a thing or two about Thailand or perhaps will plan a trip of your own to visit this fascinating place!
Elizabeth
We had a computer hard drive crash on New Years' Day and that has caused us a lot of trouble and time to recover our electronic communication. As a result, we have taken a long break from the blog postings. Luckily, due to the brilliance of our friend and IT specialist Chris Sullivan, I am happy to report that everything from the old hard drive has been recovered and will be waiting for us when we get home. For now, I will try to catch you all up on what we have been doing for all of January over the next few days, so stay tuned. Also, if you have not heard from us this year, please send us an email to spat19@comcast.net so we can rebuild our address book. That would be very much appreciated!
Although I am in a deep state of denial, our time here is rapidly drawing to an end. We have about 3 weeks before we head to Australia for some fun and sun and then on to Oregon on March first. We are looking forward to seeing all of our friends, neighbors, and our dog, but we are sad to be ending this amazing adventure. I hope you have all enjoyed reading about our escapades and have maybe learned a thing or two about Thailand or perhaps will plan a trip of your own to visit this fascinating place!
Elizabeth
