How to get a vegetarian to eat meat
Tell 'em it is prosperous!!! As part of the looming Chinese New Year McDonald's is having a promo event with some new burgers. The family includes:
The Beef Prosperity
The Chicken Prosperity
and The Pork Prosperity
So being a dedicated meatatarian I decided to try the beef prosperity because it was the last day it was available. I was just about to sink my teeth into the juicy burger...
When all of a sudden Kiran in a fit of jealousy snatched the burger from my hands and ate THE ENTIRE THING!!!
Whether it was the beef or the prosperity that drove her to her actions I will never know....
Bon Voyage to Thailand: Part II
When we purchased our admission for the Emerald Buddha we also got admission for
Vimanmek Mansion, which was built in the early 20th century by King Rama V. It is the world's largest
teak house. It was a residence of the royal family when it was first built, but is now a museum and used occasionally for entertaining high profile guests and dignitaries. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but it basically is a HUGE Victorian style mansion. I think there were 72 rooms, over 200 windows.... you get the point. Here are a couple of photos from outside though.
The grounds were well maintained as well, sporting beautiful trees and shrubbery.
(Portrait of a Brown man in front of a Thai Styled Gazebo)
Even Kiran had to express her love of the vegatation.
The other great thing about the estate was the fact that they put on a daily cultural dance show. Spanning 45mins. the show displayed various styles of Thai dancing that have evolved through the ages.
They had ones with pretty colours
Ones with fighting
Ones with stories
Ones with an elegant feel.
And ones with Canadian flags!!!!
Now, what would a dance show be without audience participation? Probably a dance show without audience participation, but not as fun as one with a.p. A couple of times they grabbed our friend Martin (from Germany) for some hilarious a.p.
They tried making him fight.
They even tried letting him win.
He did win!!!! But with a little help :P
The even had him try and dance.
No Martin, this isn't swing dancing :P
Afterwards we split up into three groups of 4 because ppl wanted to do different things. I am not sure exactly what the other groups did but Kiran, Erin, Serena & I went to
Pratunam Market, one of the more "authentic" markets in Bangkok. We were all excited to go. The girls because they could do shopping for clothes and get it so cheap. I however was excited because I could do some haggling and bargaining. It's such a game, and when you get a shopkeeper who is willing to play along it's fun to see who is willing to give up more. Of course there are times when the spread between the bid (your price) and the offer (their price) is so small that it becomes and ego-thing because neither party wants to lose... even if it is only 5Baht.
Anyways, here are a couple of quick photos I snapped.
It reminded me alot of the markets in Delhi. Crowded, smelly and dirty. I love it!!! Just like my room back home :P
I didn't buy much. Just a knockoff polo shirt, a cheap no-name t-shirt and some "beach" pants/pj's. Actually, part of the reason why I didn't buy that much is because we found that alot of the shopkeepers who were indoors were not willing to bargain down as much as those who were outdoors. We guessed it was because they are indoors and have to pay rent, thus have a smaller margin for profit. Kiran, Erin & Serena went home as very happy campers. They picked up nice Japanese style robes for only 150Baht each. Then when some of our friends met up with us we sent them to the same shopkeeper for the same robes. In total our group bought 22 robes that day!!!! At that price and that many robes one could almost say we "robed" them... hahahha hohoho.
Anyways, after that we grabbed some food at some food court where I got the chance to snap a photo of the main road in the area. Trust me, the traffic is ALOT worse and more chaotic than it looks in that photo.
The next morning (Saturday) Kiran and I had to leave for Singapore. Everybody else was staying an extra day. If we could have Kiran and I would have stayed the extra day, but unfortuately the flight on Sunday was filled when we booked meaning we had to come back on Saturday. We took one final Tuk-Tuk ride to the train station.
(Portrait of a Brown Man + guest in a tuk-tuk)
The trip ended on a really really high note. As we were getting off the tuk-tuk our driver put his hands together (as is customary in Thai culture) and said, "Happy Happy to Singapore". Well, Mr. Tuk-tuk driver I wish you and your fellow country men "Happy Happy" as well :)
Bon Voyage to Thailand: Part I
When I was applying for my exchange to Singapore and had my "interview" with the exchange director in Waterloo he asked if I was planning to do any other travelling in the region. In a more eloquent and polite manner I replied "HELL YEAH!!!". So when Kiran offered me the chance to go to Thailand with her and some of her friends studying @ NTU (Nanyang Technological University), which is the other major university in Singapore, I jumped at the exciting opportunity.... even though I would be missing one day of class. Parents stop reading here and go directly to the next paragraph. [I mean c'mon, am I here to study or have fun. Nowhere is the the word 'study' in the definition of Arventure. By the by, I am going to post the actual defintion of Arventure later on]
The twelve of us (10 from NTU + Kiran + I) arrived pretty late in Bangkok on Wed. night. We took Singapore Airlines because they had a decent deal for SIN to BKK. Let me say that those ppl know the definition of service as they more than met their esteemed reputation. After grabbing some taxis, checking into our hostel and arranging who was sleeping where we were pretty tired so we went to bed and decided to get up early for Day 1 of Thailand fun.
We woke up and left the hostel by 8am. Our plan was to see some of the major temples in Bangkok. Now there are two fun ways to travel in Bangkok. One of them is by river boat along the Chao Phraya River. So the tweleve of us hoped on one.
Boy am I glad we did because we got some amazing views along the river.
Our first stop was the area of Ko Ratankosin. Known as the "Vatican City of Thailand" there are quite a few holy places in this area. The first temple we visited was
Wat Phra Kaew home of the Emerald Buddha, and the
Grand Palace which adjoins Wat Phra Kaew. By the by, Wat means temple in Thai.
(Outside the Grand Palace)
(Portrait of a Brown Man outside the Grand Palace)
Thai architecture is quite amazing. Beautiful colours complimented with careful attention to detail makes for mesmerizing structures.
This is the famed Emerald Buddha. No pictures are allowed inside, but just outside the temple a small window allows tourists to snap a photo without offending anybody. If you click on the photo you should be taken to a blown up size of the photo to see it a bit better.
The Emerald Buddha sits atop a perch at the altar and is quite small in size. On a quick side note, the figure is not made of emerald (as the name suggets) but actually made of Jade. Like I would have known the difference.
The Grand Palace was ok, but not as exciting. The architecture style is a bit more european. The tour consists of some weapons rooms along with some throne rooms (where we can't take photos).
Next up was
Wat Pho which is only about a 5-10 min walk from the Grand Palace. Wat Pho is famous for the Reclining Buddha, a large structure (46m in length and 15m in height) of the Buddha in a reclining position before reaching Nirvana, aka enlightenment, covered in gold leaf. To my dissapointment 'reclining' didn't mean Lazy-Boy chair :(.... but the statue was still really cool.
(Portrait of a Brown Man at the Reclining Buddha)
(The Reclining Buddha)
After that we walked around Wat Pho a little more (with our "enlightened" tour guide) and saw some more buddha figures and structures similar to those at Wat Phra Kaew. One cool place was a small temple which was the most important on site (according to the tour guide). It housed a shrine which was actually covered in more gold leaf than the Reclining Buddha. The shrine was pretty impressive to see actually.
Next up, at the suggestion of our tour guide, was a traditional Thai Massage. Don't worry people, this was a legit Thai Massage. Although I did keep one eye open at all times :P It was an hour long and afterwards we all felt so great and relaxed!!! And it was only 250Thai Baht(THB). It is aprox. 30Baht to the Loonie. You do the math!!!
After that we were pretty hungry. So we found a restaurant by the massage place which was along the river and right across from Wat Arun (the next and last temple we visited).
(Everybody at restaurant)
(View of Wat Arun from restaurant)
Now I'll reveal a secret. There was only one real reason I went to Thailand... and it wasn't for the massages. Anybody who knows me knows I LOVE Pad Thai. And when I step into a restaurant in Thailand for the first time you can bet the only thing I'm going to order is Pad Thai!!!!
After finishing lunch we hoped across the river (on a boat) and went to
Wat Arun. This Wat is a well known image of Bangkok because of the great view one gets when the sun starts to set behind it. The main part of Wat Arun is the large pilar shown below. You can't climb all the way to to the top, but can get to about mid-level.
After that we were a little templed out, and decided that we had to go see the other stuff Thailand is famous for... Thai boxing!!! Remember how I said there are 2 cool ways to travel in Bangkok. Well the second is via a type of taxi known as a tuk-tuk. Silly me forgot to take a
picture of an actual tuk-tuk but you can see some photos of us riding in tuk-tuks. The max they can comfortably carry is 3ppl... 4 with some discomfort. Being poor cheap students we sat 4 in each :P
So we took the tuk-tuks to the boxing arena, but discovered that it was a little too pricey. The cheapest seats were 500THB but those were standing room only WAY at the back. Ringside was 1200THB. So instead some of us headed to a nearby market, Khao San. I wish we had known about this area before because it is a major tourist hang out.
(One of many bars in Khao San... that is right on the street!!!)
It is still a market but in a tourist area, which means that the prices were a little higher. So instead we decided to walk around, check out prices and sharpen our bargaining skills without actually doing any shopping. That way we could get a good sense of what we could bargain down to in other markets (which is what we did the following day).
One thing I've noticed about SE Asia is the large presence of major wester corporations such as Coke, 7-11 (there are soooo many here), KFC.... and of course McDonald's. But hey, at least they try and embrace the local culture.
After that we just went home back to our hostel where we met up with our friends who stayed for the Thai Boxing. They said there was no blood or breaking of bones, but it was still pretty entertaining (ie violent). We walked around the area near our hostel for a little bit and then headed back to sleep to rest for Day 2, which I will write about in the next entry. Cheers!!!
