thewills'wanderings

These are Charlotte’s words for the Thai women usually around 50 years of age who spot her in the crowd scream with excitement and then lunge at her and pinch her cute little arms. I think we might call it assault back in NZ. I just keep reassuring her that they’re just being friendly, but inside I’m thinking, “Stop, leave my baby alone!”

Our first day out walking near our guesthouse was quite an experience. Because we’re not right in the centre of Bangkok there don’t seem to be any other foreigners around and we really are quite the local attraction. I think the whole tribe of girls is what amuses people. The big girls are just relieved to have Charlotte as the main pinching target. When I say pinching I really do mean quite firm pinching, not just patting. I wonder if they pinch cute Thai children. I have thought about trying it myself but I don’t want to risk getting into trouble. After the first day, Charlotte was a bit traumatised and Tim carried her on his shoulders quite a lot. She was very happy up there away from the “pinchy people”. I’m sure we do look quite a sight trundling along with our bright red, sweaty faces and bodies. It’s amazing that the Thai people don’t look hot at all in 38 degrees!

On our second day we decided to head to a water park to try and cool off. The water was luke warm so it was hard to feel very refreshed for long. There were loads of cool pools and slides including a huge wave pool . On one long fast slide I thought Tim was going to seriously injure himself. He got so air born that he almost didn’t land back in the slide slot. I don’t think they make them for smaller body frames than his! Although it was very western type attraction it certainly was a cultural experience. The contrast s of Thailand become obvious when you compare the wealthy Thais at the water park and the locals around our guesthouse living on the stinky canals with dirt floors.

Yesterday we took a long taxi ride to the floating markets where we went on a boat through the markets. It was lots of fun and very fascinating but a bit more touristy than we were expecting. There were foreigners everywhere so lucky for Charlotte she had a day free of pinching! We actually had a taxi driver for the whole day which felt very weird, but he waited for us at the markets and then we asked to go a shopping mall so he dropped us there for 2 hours. It was quite an upmarket mall, with most things being either the same price or more expensive than NZ. The top floor of the building was a kid’s area with all sorts of over the top kid’s stuff you could imagine, including pools and water slides! It was nice to have a break from the relentless heat.

The girls have coped well with our little taste of Thailand. I think the heat has been the hardest thing and we’ve been very glad to have air-con in the guesthouse and a pool to cool off in. The guesthouse has been awesome, a real family feel, with people bending over backwards to help us. We’ve been eating yummy Thai food here at the guesthouse except for some of the least adventurous members who have had a bit of fried chicken and chips(grrh!)

So, after 4 nights in Thailand we are about to fly out to Nepal. (heading to the airport in about an hour)We’re very excited! We’ve all finally adjusted to the time change after a few 4.30am wake-ups and grumpy days and are looking forward to meeting up with the AdSpecs guys and starting our Nepal adventure.

We’re thinking of you all with your nice cool autumn temperatures!We’ll add photos when we get to Kathmandu.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.