This morning would have us leave the peaceful setting of Lat Sawai around 07:00. Off to Bangkok proper. Bew had to get to work by eight and lucky for us it was a public holiday. The roads were reasonably clear and there was not a lot of need for Nuch’s back seat driving.

Bew dropped us at Victory Circle and we caught a cab to the hotel from there. I may have mentioned that there are a lot of Isan people working in Bangkok and our taxi driver was one of them. Well, after a ten minute cab ride I almost felt bad leaving him in the cab. Nuch just talked, talked, talked, talked, talked. There’s only one other person I know that actually invited the cabby to dinner. (That’s definitely another story)

Managing to pry Nuch out of the cab we settled into our hotel room.

Not long thereafter Nuch had determined that we should go shopping. So off we went to the local BTS Skytrain station. This elevated rail service is excellent by the way. As long as your destination is somewhere along the rail route I can highly recommend it. We had to travel to Siam station and then a quick jaunt along the skywalk.

Having studied a bit of Thai I can definitely say that the locals have a habit of (the only way to describe it) bastardizing their language. The letter R becomes L and vice versa. Some of the words in their language come from the western world. Elevator in Thai is Lift. Salad becomes Salaat and Cream is Cream. Some words don’t scrape through as cleanly as in TV. There is no “V” in the Thai language so TV become T Wee. As can be seen it doesn’t take long to get an understanding of how confusing it can get when a local, without a mastery of English and a degree in bastardized Thai translated into English tries to explain and or ask for the location of a department store.

So (he who hates shopping more than watching The Brady Bunch and skewering his cheeks with kebab skewers) went along for another joy filled afternoon of “shopping”. The shopping centre of choice was Central World. It’s the one with the metal detector at the front entrance. Although, we chose to go through the Skywalk entrance and thereby negating the afore mentioned metal detector. I love it. Other shopping centers have similar security protocols in place all as a result of some terrorist acts a few years back. I felt completely safe as a result.

Now comes the fun part. My beloved wanted to go to the department store (most assuredly located within the shopping complex) and failed to instantly determine where it may be located. She also has a habit of not immediately availing herself of local resources. So I asked her what the name of the department sore (sorry, store) might be and she replied, “Cen”. That’s how it sounded in my ears and with a quick double-take I concluded that it would either be Sen as in send or Cen as in central.

We ascended from floor to floor and with every floor circumnavigated it soon became apparent that my wife (someone who keeps reminding me she lived in Bangkok some twenty years) had no idea where the elusive “Cen” may be located.

I suggested on more than one occasion that she ask for directions. The reply, still ringing my ears was, “Just a moment darling”. On the sixth floor she capitulated and asked one of the “security” personnel as to the whereabouts of “Cen”. Down we went. Six floors and a lot of walking later we found ourselves back in the Skywalk. Yes, back where we started. We meandered along and soon found ourselves back at the entrance (the one without the metal detector) and in we went again. This, we of course did a third time when finally my wife was forced to once again ask for directions. The tedium of this journey was broken up with some humor when I realized she had just asked the same guy for the same directions.

My wife’s perseverance was to be rewarded when finally we turned a corner and there, like an oasis in a desert, was the store she had been looking for. Was it Cen? No. Was it Sen? No.

It was Zen. What an apt name…..

This morning got off to an early start. I can highly recommend the River Kwai Hotel. Very good and affordable. Buffet breakfast out of the way and off we went in search of the “Death Railway Museum”.

Actually this particular museum is not far from the bridge. There’s an old steam locomotive as one comes in with an old Mercedes Benz perched on top of it. The significance of it must have been compelling for someone and it certainly got a “what the” from me. I failed to see what the Merc had to do with the Burma railway though.

Having seen the bits and pieces that were gathered up after the railway project we were off once again.

Next stop was a movie set of sorts used for a five part Thai epic. Not quite Universal Studios and interesting just the same. Tourists can opt to be ferried around by way of ox and cart. Some of the set elements are now up for sale and one lucky purchaser can pick up a teak house for a cool 15 million baht.

As we were making our way back to Bangkok Bew mentioned we could drop in to the Bangkok Motor Show. It would appear that she has a hankering to purchase a new car. I should mention that you don’t see too many vehicles on the roads older than the term of the loan used to procure them. The latter being able to be stretched to eight years. Once the loan is out of the way it’s time for a new car.
The motor-show was definitely a site to behold. The venue would put the Melbourne Exhibition centre to shame. Lovingly referred to by Melbournians as “Jeff’s Shed” and compared to the Bangkok Venue it is a very apt name.

The way the Thais present the vehicles is also quite an eye opener. Women are to be seen with just about every vehicle on display and will definitely ensure you focus on the new Ford Focus.

Today we got up early and left to go for breakfast. The Thais have sensational eateries that we as farangs don’t really frequent as they are in areas that are off the beaten tourist track. Apart from the food being sensational it is also cheap. Today we had bowls of soup, rice and more, shared between three for seven dollars. Doesn’t get better than that.

Then it was off to Kanchanaburi, the location of the bridge over the river Kwai. Well, there are actually quite a few bridges over it. This one is a dedicated rail bridge and is purported to be in the same spot as the bridge we all know from WWII. Apparently the original got blown up. The Japanese then made amends after the war.

These days said bridge sees hundreds of people traipsing all over it each and every day. Throw in a train for good measure and now all that’s missing is the whistling of the Colonel Bogey March.

We also went to the Erawan Falls. Anyone who’s ever seen an actual waterfall will not miss out not seeing these falls. The park though, is very well maintained. The latter being facilitated by the fact that farangs pay three times the gate rate than the locals. It was here that we decided to stock up on fried chicken and papaya salad (som thum) and meander down to the falls.

Great day had by all and I only had to pay for fuel and food and lodgings. Not a bad deal really….