One Night in Bangkok And The World's Your Oyster!

Well actually...4 nights in Bangkok...I just like the song!

Getting our feet eaten (cleaned) by fish! 

Khao San Road

Bangkok is an amazing city! It is so unbelievably clean and modern compared to all the other major cities we have visited. It is a very colorful city with rainbow taxis that were like limos compared to the more unfortunate vehicles we were escorted in elsewhere. Loads of tuk-tuks as well and monks in orange walking around. Des says it is much different than he remembers it--much more improved. We stayed on Khao San Road which has everything you would ever need or want on one little street. The streets are filled with delicious aromas of the most amazing street food that they whip up in a couple minutes right in front of you. Pad Thai, prawn tempura, mystery meat on sticks, exotic fruit, Thai pancakes with an assortment of stuffings, seafood balls, squid on sticks, corn on the cob, deep fried insects...Des ate a giant cricket--yum ;)  You name it, they've got it! There is even a lot of shark fin soup around which is absolutely horrible as many fishers cut the fins off the shark and throw the rest of it back in the sea. It's a vegetarians dream over here in Thailand that I can have Tofu in absolutely everything. My favorite dishes are Penang  Curry, green Curry, Rice with fried egg on top,spring rolls, Tom Yam soup, prawn tempura, pad thai with cashew nuts and something called "no name" which is this vegetable lemon-grass patty that Des introduced me to. YUM YUM YUM to Thai food! It has even surpassed Indian as far as I'm concerned!

Des eating deep-fried cricket

Scorpions...Bon Appetit! 

A plethora of deep-fried insects to choose from!

Stopping for mangoes on our scooter ride!

Crab and prawn balls

More fruit! (Looked like Durian but tasted like strawberries!)

"No Name"

Dragon Fruit

Pad Thai

Bag fulla Mangos!

Street Meat

Heading to Thailand we had to go from Nepal back through India (Mumbai) where we had a 16 hour layover--yikes! We did what we did when travelling from Bangalore to Kathmandu and slept over night in the airport. (Except in Bangalore we had to make a bed on the floor whereas we found some cushy little chair-beds to sleep on in Mumbai). We sat and watched the news unfold in Japan with the earthquake and tsunami--absolutely devastating.

In Bangkok we visited all the little charming markets, went and saw the giant gold reclining Buddha, toured the Royal Palace (the king is all over billboards here--always photographed with a camera around his kneck), saw the emerald Buddha, went on a boat ride around the canals where ladies came up to our boat in their canoe offering food they were cooking right there. (Reminded me a bit of Venice the way the shops and houses are all on the water which is the main road in parts). On Khoa San Road we went for Thai massages where they stretch you in unthinkable positions and kneel on your back, shopped a bit and put our feet in a tank of little fish that ate the skin off them--extremely uncomfortable but we got used to it. We had a night out drinking Changs with some nice Ukrainians we met too. We were approached constantly by little ladies dressed up in funny hats selling croaking wooden frogs and all sorts of other peculiar stuff.

My rosemantic fiance got me a lovely rose from a street seller

Cookin' up a feast on the river

Lady at our boat selling souveniers

Kids out for swim in river

Our boat

Pile of buttons at the market

Monks lined up along the river

The king of Thailand

Lady selling wooden frogs et al

Blow fish lights

The famous Emerald Buddha

Blessing with flowers at the Royal Palace

Thai monk in deep thought

Hey man!

Lotsa towers--very purty

Royal palace

Tuk-tuks

Reclining Buddha

Shark fin soup--bad bad bad!

Took this photo on the sly...

Guards at palace

Reclining Buddha

Next up the islands!
Missing everyone loads,
Lotsa love,
Andrea and Des x x x

Back in Kathmandu we did a day of sight-seeing and conveniently it was the Buddhist New Years so lots to see! We went to the biggest stompa in Nepal and walked around it spinning the prayer wheels as locals hung prayer flags. Many monks gathered and once again, we sat in on their prayers and chants in the monastery, this time accompanied by instruments such as gongs, flutes and drums.

Ceremonial saffron

Burning for good luck in the New Year

Traditional Nepalese dress

Monks

We also went to the holy river where cremations take place. It was quite disturbing as we literally watched families burn the bodies of their deceased loved ones. One family was particularly in a state with wails being heard from across the river where we sat and watched politely from afar. They basically take the body that is wrapped in bright cloth and covered with colorful flowers and place it on a cement platform just above the river. It is hardly a river now but a meager little stream, however; it eventually joins with the holy river Ganges in India and therefore people continue to use it for cremations. Literally everything is thrown into the river including all the cloths, flowers and eventually ashes. Meanwhile random kids and others not associated with the family capitalize at the opportunity to take metal detectors and search the area for any jewelry or money that has come from the body. A few meters away from all this ladies were washing clothes in the dirty river and families were bathing.

After the body is placed on the logs on the platform, the family take turns to walk around the body three times. Then the son lights the fire in the mouth where the soul is meant to escape and the professional men do the rest. It takes around 4 hours for the body to burn and Des and and I went and got a better view of the burning bodies from higher up. I felt sick to my stomach at the disturbing scene--although I had to keep in mind it is very traditional and completely normal here. However, I saw the toes curl up as they burnt and a leg fell off right in front of my eyes and was kicked under the burning log.

Family around body

Body burning--note: the feet

Over the bridge other people were having open cremations but that side was for the elite as the rich people could afford to be burnt such as royalty and political figures. Back in the day the platforms burnt bodies according to caste and class having the poorer at the end and working the way to the end based on payment. Today, apparently the "poor" side of the river costs around 5000 Nepalese rupees to have a cremation service (50 euro).

The "rich" side of the river

We went into a market-type place following this where I saw one of the most disturbing sights in all the travels. A woman had her little boy on display on a blanket on the ground begging for money. He was sweating like crazy in the hot hot sun and as I looked down I saw his lower half was exposed to passer-byers. His genitals had been burnt off and he had burns and scar tissue all around his thighs. I have no idea what happened to the poor thing but he looked awfully uncomfortable and it disgusted me that the mother was using him as a commodity or a way to make money by making him suffer in the heat and what probably was very embarrassing and painful for him. Whether the situation was deliberate or not I don't know and I tried to think that it wasn't but I kept getting a flashback of a book I read (A Fine Balance--Rohan Ministry) where deliberate amputations and blindness is caused to children when they're very young so that they can bring in more money for the family than the adults without limbs etc.

We went to the monkey temple which was a large stompa and had a great view of the city. We also went to Dunbar square which is extremely Chinese influenced in how it looks.

View of Kathmandu

Dunbar Square

Kathmandu itself is a nice but very polluted city where many people walk around with face masks on. The shopping is great for outdoor lovers as they have brilliant replicas of North Face everything. The food left something to be desired but Des found a place where he had the best steak he's had in ages---they call their meet "buff" steak or "buff" burger. At first I thought it was a spelling mistake but it's actually water buffalo. On the streets there are big bright orange wild boars with mo-hawks and whole goat heads and other bits laid outside on tables where people come and pick out the section they'd like to buy---not the most hygienic of systems! The city is also without electricity for 16 hours a day so things are very difficult for them as the government doesn't invest enough money into fixing the problem and therefore the entire city depends on generators. Many of the local shops are in tiny little closet-like entrances--very charming!

Orange wild boar sporting a mo-hawk

Goat--head on left

The cupboard shops

AND NOW...on to Thailand! x x