Bangkok – Last days of summer

Indeed it was last warm days before coldness…

I arrived to Bangkok conveniently on 14ht of February, Valentine’s day, and it was indeed nice to meet some Finnish friends after couple of months travelling. In general the weekend in Bangkok was really for relaxation. My bus from Koh Chang left me on Khao San Road and after small adventure with local taxis I found myself surrounded by familiar people. I was staying at Henna&Sampo’s place in Chatuchak near the elephant tower. They have such an awesome place there I must say!

The Thursday evening went by just having dinner with other Finnish students in Bangkok and the evening continued in Khao San Road where I also met one of my friends from Kotka. We made a deal to go to eat ice cream and go to movie to see the new Die Hard on following evening. And that was basically everything that happened on Friday; lying on the pool until afternoon, having a look on the shopping mall next to H&S’s place and then in the evening going to movie. The shopping mall’s food court surprised we with Arla Apetina Feta snacks (Finnish stuff). And also I now realised how hard it is here to find good bread (not white wheat) and cheese. Let’s see what is the situation in China… 

The movie didn’t convince me, I am still quite out on the plot and what actually happened there, but there were lots of nice action scenes, cars blowing everywhere and Bruce Willis saved the world again. So everything you can ask for a good hangover movie. And we went to see the movie in IMAX-movie theatre so the first half an hour my eyes were just adjusting for the HUGE screen (when watching straight ahead I almost couldn’t see the both ends of the canvas).

Saturday was the market day, Chatuchak weekend market. And those were large! We spent the whole day walking around there and we still didn’t see even the half of the area. The pet area with all those small puppies was so cute (and sad to see). But here you can definitely buy everything you might need from parrot to washing machine. Reminds me a bit on Brussels’ Sunday market on Midi. 

                                   Which rice to take today?

                Choose your own shrimps!

                         Hello handsome

After wondering around the whole day in the market it was time for a sushi overflow! And the overflow is exactly the right term to use here. In the Union Mall’s sushi restaurant we first of all got our lining number. This already told us the place is popular. We had to wait around half an hour before it was our turn. The dinner cost 330 BHT (~8,5€)  per person and you can eat as much as you like for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Since there were five of us we got to choose two constantly boiling soup stocks which they landed in front of us. The actual sushis we needed to get from the buffet table but then there was a conveyor belt going next to our table and we could take there as much as stuff as we wanted. 

 

All the food on conveyor belt was raw so we needed to cook these in our soups. And oh boy was there food! For more than half of the food I have no idea what I was eating. I recognized the shrimps and some veggies and mushrooms and some of the meet but that didn’t stop me trying new things. Some things were really good and some weren’t… But like always, California rolls maintain the first place on my favorite sushi list. 

We also met these cuties on the line. I cooked these, tasted a bit. Fish cookies. Didn’t convince me with their flavour!

 

Sunday was MBK time. A huge huge department store full of fake items. And seriously, you can find anything from here. To be honest I didn’t like it here so much. I somehow have the feeling that if I buy some fake products, especially with highly visible sign I am a bit embarrassed even to wear these, let alone having these kind of items at all. I just had the feeling that it was such a shame that they wanted to have the labels everywhere since most, for example the bags, were actually really well done and looked nice. But that’s only me, everyone does as they wish of course. 

Sunday evening went then by mostly packing my stuff and throwing away some of my old travel clothes. Some of the Finnish people who I had met during this weekend came by for a final beer. This was it now! Travel time over, time to orientate back to civilization! Monday morning wake up at 5 AM and then time to head to the airport. 

Arrivederci backpack life, hello Shanghai!