Hahaha... This day was a very interesting day. It started with a tour of parts of the old city by boat down the Chao Phraya River. The tour itself was alright, however, we were unable to hear the tour guide through the loudspeaker so did not learn anything. We stopped by a snake farm where we saw masters of the serpents handle these snakes, some poisonous, with their bare hands. One of the snakes jumped out of one guy's hands and jumped towards us! That gave us a little scare. While we were waiting for the rest of the tourists to get back onto the boat, a boat merchant came up alongside our boat and sold coconut ice cream. Giselle treated us out to a few cups. It was a nice treat amid the rather uneventful day... so far.
We met up with our tour guide for the day at the pier, and he took us to a government approved tailor. There, the boys bought two suits each and Giselle and I bought some ties. After purchasing all of this stuff we had not originally planned on buying, he then brought us to a government approved jewelry store. Though the sparkly items sitting under the recessed lighting were practically calling us, none of us bought anything. I didn't like the fact that we were taken to these stores. We didn't ask him to. He just brought us there. Didn't occur to me at the time that we should say "no, thank you." It just seemed like we were suckered into it, even though we're happy with our purchases.
After being taken to these government approved places, we asked to be driven to a Skytrain station. Our goal was to see the reclining buddha in Wat Pho. Oh what a journey this was. We entered Chinatown. Chinatown was like every other Chinatown I've ever been to - compacted and polluted. The streets were lined with little shops selling everything you can think of. Gold merchants could be found in every direction. The sidewalks were also lined with people selling Chinese New Year accessories, lottery tickets, tourist items, and a lot of food. I found a stand selling durian. I've never tried fresh durian and having heard so much about fresh durian, I bought one. The guy cut it up for me and wrapped up each piece. I thought that was pretty coool. But the durian sure was expensive! I decided to eat this later. The streets were crowded, and the idea of eating it after being chilled in a fridge for a little while sounded good. Heh heh. That wasn't such a good idea. Will explain later. While waiting for G and Mae as they were looking at the gold, Victor and I had a little time to explore. We squeezed through narrow aisles looking at all the strange foods they were selling. We came upon dehydrated bale fruit, something Mae really wanted to get. I bought a kilogram. One kilogram ended up being a huge bag!
Oops. Forgot to mention that we had dim sum for lunch. That was so good and a nice change from all the thai food I've been having. I haven't had anything but thai until then. And it also felt good to speak Chinese, a language that was fully understood by our waiter. Up until then, we had spoken nothing but broken English to everyone. Their dim sum menu offered so much we've never tried before. My favorite was the one with the preserved duck egg. Our table was buried with bamboo steamer baskets. We found it sort of funny. These baskets didn't stay on our table for long. We literally devoured everything. This pic only shows a portion of what we ate. =)
Okay. So all of us regrouped and continued walking. We walked. And we walked. The distance on the map didn't look very far, but it sure was! Ugh. My feet were really hurting by now. Flip flops offer zero arch support. We stopped at a little shopping center that sold really cool foods, but before seeing all this cool stuff, we bought some Dairy Queen ice cream. Man. Wasted opportunity to try something neat. At this point, I really wanted to just take a taxi or tuk-tuk there. Oh yeah, ready to cry as well. My feet and legs screamed for mercy with every step. But we continued walking. Luckily, we finally met our destination soon afterwards.
We got there after 5pm. I'm sure we had to pay, but we just went in. No one asked us to pay. Maybe we went through a side entrance? At this time, the crowds were gone. There were just a few people milling around, so it was a nice change from the congestion of chinatown. Wat Pho was beautiful. The detailing on each of the structures was incredible. The reclining buddha was huge and beautiful. Half of our group peeked into a temple where a group of monks were meditating. My friends found it so peaceful that even they fell into a trance. They said it was an awesome experience.
We were all tired from walking so decided to head back to the hotel via Skytrain/subway. It felt so good to finally sit down and relax my tired feet. As I was revelling in the moment of relaxation, a station attendant walked by, abruptly stopped in front of me and asked, "Durian?" Oh shoot. I read somewhere that durian isn't allowed in many places because of the smell. "Yes, durian," I said meekly. She proceeded to saying something like "durian smelly" and gestured towards the door. "Can I put it inside a backpack?" miming putting my bag of aromatic durian in the bag. "No. Smelly." There was nothing I could do, so I got up to leave the train. Everyone else got out too. I urged them to get back on. There's no point in ALL of us taking another form of transportation back. Victor decided to stay with me, and everyone else reluctantly continued on their way.
Okay. What to do? The most appealing alternative was to take a taxi all the way back to the hotel. I really really did not want to walk any more. We got out of the station and walked to a taxi terminal. Got into the taxi and let the driver know that we had durian with us. He said it was okay. We rolled down the window slightly for fresh air. At one point, we rolled it up, but after a few minutes, the driver rolled his window down and said, "Sorry. Stinky." Man. I was just grateful he hadn't kicked us out of his taxi yet. He eventually pulled up in front of a hotel, but it wasn't the Dream Hotel, the place we were staying at. Turns out he thought we said something else, and when we were finally able to locate our hotel on the map, he refused to drive us there due to the traffic. So he let us off at a mall where there was a subway station. We walked through the mall looking for the station entrance and walked by this poster. Had to take a pic!
Before getting into the station, we had to pass through a security check. These checks are rarely ever thorough, but the chance of being refused entrance was still there. By now, the durian was already wrapped in two plastic bags and concealed in a pocket of Victor's messenger bag. It let off a slight stench, but not too noticeable. We hoped the security or anyone for that matter would not pick up any scent. I opened my bag wide for the security guard to peek inside. Victor's turn. He opened up his bag as well. Our hearts were pounding slightly. He received a nod from the guard. Whew! We found our way to the correct line and waited for our train to come. We gave each other nervous and relieved smiles. We weren't out of the clear yet. We had to make it to our destination still. Our train came. Oh no. It was pretty crowded. That means more people will be closer to us. I got in and found a seat. Victor stood next to me in the corner near the door. As the train glided along the tracks, I took a quick look at all the people in our proximity. Nope. No one wrinkled their noses or were looking around in disgust. That was a good sign. "Sukhumvit station" the automated train operator announced. Yes! Our stop. We eagerly squeezed passed other passengers and stepped onto the platform, safe territory. Victor and I walked out of that station with a slight bounce to our step. We were so glad we made it back with no additional troubles. Hahaha! But wait! Many hotels don't allow durians on their property either! Another obstacle. There was always a doorman waiting by the door to greet guests, but luckily, he wasn't there! We quickly walked in and rushed to the elevator. Once the elevator doors closed, we both breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Whew! Now we're in the clear!
We stopped by the boys' room first, threw the durian in their fridge, and told Eric of our little adventure. After we all showered, we took off again in search of food. Once again, I was carrying the durian. Why? Because when I opened up the boys' fridge before we left, an explosion of an incredibly horrible smell blasted from the little white bag holding the durian. We had to air the room out. What if we got fined for sneaking durian into the hotel? So that's why the insanely stinky bag of fruit was stuffed inside my purse. As we were walking down the street, I ate a whole piece. Hmm. Yeah, shouldn't have waited so long to eat it. By then, it was already pretty ripe and mushy from the day's heat and being transported for so long. That was too bad. Victor took a little nibble when the guy cut up the fruit, and he said it was actually pretty good. I could only imagine. Sigh...
Dinner was good. Ordered a lemon shake. It was kinda weird.
We only had two nights left in Thailand, and one of my must-do's was to eat bugs. This had to be the night. We walked around the streets of Bangkok. Walked by a bunch of massage parlors with women wearing matching shirts and heels chitchatting outside. Wow. Massage parlors are open so late here! Yeah, I bet tons of people get manis and pedis at two in the morning! Yeah right! We turned down one busy street, and I finally found a street vendor selling trays of bugs! Jackpot! Hmm... What to get... They all looked pretty unappetizing, so I selected a few from his great choices.
When we got back to the hotel, Giselle and Mae decided to rest. Victor and I were eager to try the bugs. Eric would try them if we ate them. We called Tommy over too. This was like a main event. All of the bugs were displayed on a plate. Cameras were snapping from every angle. We even threw in a bottle of Off! (bug repellent) for some humor.
Okay. Time to do some chomping. Which one shall I eat first. I chose what looked the most appetizing. The grasshoppers. I picked up a medium-sized one and popped it into my mouth. I started chewing. Hm! Not bad! I thought it tasted like crackers! It was deep-fried so nice and crunchy. Tommy went next. Then Victor and then Eric. We all eased our nerves with lots of laughs.
Next item on the menu was large ants sauteed in chili peppers and lemongrass. A small bag of fresh leaves were given to wrap up these ants in a roll type fashion. I tore a small leaf off and rolled up some ants in it and threw it into my mouth. Not bad again! The lemongrass flavor was actually overpowering and that was all I could taste. It was pretty spicy too.
Third course of the night were the crickets. These were black and probably deep fried as well. I popped one into my mouth, hoping it would taste like the grasshopper. Nope. It didn't. The shell and legs were crunchy, but the innards were mushy and gross. I can't compare it to anything else I've eaten. Tommy andEric said the aftertaste is like dried shrimp. I dunno. I like dried shrimp, and I certainly did not like the cricket. That was pretty darn nasty.
Okay! Time for the main course! I would be the only participant for this main event for it even scared the boys off. It was a huge water beetle, probably four inches in length. Before buying this beetle, I asked the vendor how to eat this. I tried to ask him if I eat everything including the shell by miming and his response looked like I got it right. Just eat the whole thing. So after taking some photos with this little monster, I stuffed the whole thing in my mouth. I chomped and chomped, but the shell wasn't getting any easier to swallow. A lot of guts and innards exploded onto my tongue, but the shell wasn't giving in. Ugh. The guts were disgusting. It was sort of grainy and cold. I've never tried eating dirt or mud, but that's probably how it tasted. I swallowed a lot of this and tried swallowing some of the skeleton as well, but my mouthful of beetle wasn't lessening. The shell wasn't edible. The guys told me to just spit it out after I complained I couldn't chew it anymore. So I ran to the bathroom and spat out the shell in the trash. I spat whatever I had left into the sink. Seeing the little bits of legs and black muck from the guts made me gag. The boys outside were laughing. They thought I had thrown up. Not only did it look gross, it tasted gross as well. I walked back to the table and started chewing on a grasshopper to wash out that water beetle taste in my mouth. It was nasty! But I was glad I did it.
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