Bangkok Surprises
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008by Rachael
A relaxing morning at the park seemed a good plan. And not just to us. Ladies practised manouvres with red-tassled shining silver (M6 with eyes still googling adds the word *REAL*) swords. Others bent over, reached up, stretched out. Men cycled and ran. Still others worked out on gym equipment set out in the shade of a large old tree.
And us? We hired four duck paddle boats for half an hour on the lake. Did I say “relaxing” morning? Hmmm, more like a race! We slowed only to watch monitor lizards!
Watching occasional falling droplets send ripples across the water, I wondered aloud if we should skip the playground and just head for home. Consulting the darkening sky (see the picture below), Rob concluded there was time to play. And there was. There just wasn’t time to get out of the park again before the lightning flashed and thunder roared directly above us (and we mean DIRECTLY!!!). My boring preferred sensibility to get home dry was overruled by the attraction of being in a different part of town with potentially different food to sample. I noticed people scurrying faster, so we quickened our pace too. In an instant the heavens opened and bucketloads of water poured over us as we raced along the open street. Steps to a mall offered welcome shelter; we ascended, wiping our feet on the cloth just laid out for that purpose. We keep going inside in search of food. It’s pricey and we’re cheap! Back outside we drip to see if the shower was just a short one. It wasn’t. Rob wonders about a noodle shop we had hurriedly passed and dispatches me with J12 to scout out the prices. Squinting into the torrent, we step out under the waterfall. Waves lap around our ankles – truly, that is no exaggeration! As fast as we can (which actually isn’t too fast, because everyone else has umbrellas and they are held at eye-jabbing height), we splash down the street in the deluge. But we can’t even get *near* the noodle shop. It is jam-packed with people; not customers, just rain-avoiders. Edging my way into the crowd, I try to catch a glimpse of the wall-mounted menu, but it is impossible. We admit defeat, decide there really is no point waiting any longer in the downpour and wade back to the others. They look astonished.
“How did you get so wet?” I wonder!!! (To be fair, Rob thought it was a covered walkway he was sending us under – it most decidedly was not!)
After waiting for the rain to ease (haha), the mostly-dry ones headed into the mall for some food, while us dripping ones re-entered the storm. At the exact moment we stepped out, thunder crashed significantly!
At the subway station our plans to go home for dry clothes were almost thwarted; more of those uniformed officials were busy performing their duties, which in this case meant preventing us fro entering the station. We had to step aside and wring out our clothes and hair before we were granted permission to go underground.
We stood on the platform in an ever-increasing puddle, inspecting our prune-like fingers and enjoying feeling cool. It was hard to believe we’d been submerged for less than half an hour.
The air-conditioned train pulled up and soon we were shivering. We’d never expected *that* in Bangkok!
later……LUNCH
Sweet-n-sour chicken on rice.
We order and are ushered to a table under the roof (there being only two walls it seems a little extravagant to use the word “inside”). I ask J12 what has been the most memorable thing so far and his eyes almost pop out of his head.
“Did you see that rat Mum? It was THIS big without the tail,” and he places his hands together, but doesn’t let the fingers touch coz it really was that long. It is as big as the squirrel we had seen at the park, but much less endearing.
J12 turns back to the question, but three more rats compete for his attention. They get mine too. They are scurrying a mere metre from us, so I decide some scare tactics are in order. I stand up. Ha. They stare back. I stomp my foot. They edge closer. We pick up our glass Pepsi bottles and move to a table in the alleyway. Old men point and laugh at us, with us! We keep a careful eye on the rodent family. One of the ladies doing the cooking kicks the cat-sized-rat aside. No wonder they didn’t move for me. We swallow our rice and notice two cockroaches scrambling nearby.
No-one was put off returning to the same place for dinner, although Rob did ban rat-talk AND we sat out on the road. Before we could even get the tables ready, the kids had investigated the rat-house and were most delighted that they were still home. Their excitement would only have been greater if they had been allowed to discuss the finds…..but that ban was enforced!!
rayres