Time flies…

I went to Chiang Mai for Loy Krathong and Lantern Festival, so I’ll post up pictures and stuff of that soon. It was so beautiful! One of the best things I’ve done in my life.

I haven’t posted a lot recently, because with Chiang Mai and being back at work I’ve been pretty busy. But life is going really, really well. I haven’t been this happy in like… maybe ever. I can’t believe I’ve been here for almost 4 months now. It has been a whirlwind adventure. I’m having so much fun, learning new things, meeting new people, and I know I’m changing a lot. For one thing, I’ve definitely become more chill and way less uptight. I think Thailand just forces you to become sabai sabai.

It struck me today how quickly the culture shock passed. I mean, I suppose I’ve had a lifetime of training in Thai culture, but I still didn’t think it’d become so natural for me to do things like jaywalk across busy streets, haggle for lower prices, ride motorcycles (yes! so fun!), just buy random shit off the street… but the stray animals still make me sad every time.

But everyday, I’m learning new things about Thai culture, specifically the people. And I’m learning how very American I really am. I’m seeing how Thailand is still very sexist. How incredibly close-knit many Thai families are. How little trust people have in the government. And how Thai people are incredibly multi-talented – I love that everyone learns things in school like cooking and sewing and music and art. In America, these things are a bit of an afterthought, though we might have a few classes or electives. But I think these kinds of things should be part of the curriculum – we’re really missing out on useful information.

I’m just really, really happy. Tired and busy, but in the best possible way.

Yesterday’s adventure: Taksura

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taksura

So in the last post I mentioned how I left Bed Supper Club to find another place to go, right? We were looking for this place called Taksura. It’s a restaurant/bar with a few different locations. They’re all kind of hidden under your nose in the city. They’re hard to find, with signs only in Thai, and you almost have to already know they’re there to get to them.

On Sunday we were looking for one location of Taksura, which I’m still not sure exists. We couldn’t find it, so Sunday ended disappointingly.

Yesterday, though, I had to go buy my 2,800 baht purse at Jaspal (softest leather ever), so we went back to Terminal 21 and then Central World to get some GIANT size Monobos. On Sunday night, the cab driver had pointed out that there was a Taksura near Siam, so we decided we’d try to find it for dinner.

There’s this travelfish article about Taksura which gives you directions to a few locations. We wanted to find the supposedly Ratchadamri one. Farang article was wrong! It’s actually near the Ratchathewi BTS. Luckily, we’d been there before, so we knew the area.

So Taksura is hidden in this tiny soi. You walk down the soi, past a few other restaurants, and then you see this little sign in Thai. A really easy to miss sign. Then you walk a little bit down a path and walk through this little doorway thing into an outdoor seating area.

It’s an adorable place – I love outdoor restaurants. This place was packed, and it was a Monday night. I’d love to go there on the weekend when a band plays. I think it’d be so fun. I feel like this place was the most Thai place I’ve been to. A lot of Thai people know about Taksura, though, so it’s not super unknown. I still think it has a very Thai hipster feel to it, though.

I only took one picture, but I will definitely take more next time.

The food was fantastic. That cashew chicken is one of the best things I’ve had in Thailand. There have been 2 things I’ve eaten that really blew my mind, and this is one of them. The other is a fantastic bowl of noodles in front of a 7-11 down my street.

I’m really excited to go back again, and take more pictures, and try to find all the other locations! It’ll be a good adventure

Sunday’s adventure: Ikea Bangna and Bed Supper Club

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bed supper club, ikea

Have you heard? Bangkok has now got their own Ikea, and it might be the 3rd biggest Ikea in the world! All I know is, it’s really damn big. It just opened on November 3rd, so we went on opening weekend to have some Swedish meatballs.

It’s in Bangna, and it is just really, really complicated to get there. I don’t even want to talk about it. It annoys me. Because of that, I may never go back.

It was fun, but really, really crowded. The line just to get into the parking lot was a bitch.

We also took pictures with the heart. He was nice.

Those meatballs were delicious. Yeah. And the cranberry sauce… mmmmm

After that, we went to Bed Supper Club, which I was really excited to go to because it’s a club that has beds for you to lay on. And it’s really hi-so. It was gay night, so there was no cover before 10 PM.

It was really, really boring. We didn’t get to sit on a bed. I actually left really early because some of us wanted to go find another place to go, so I’m not sure if it got anymore fun after that. But I think this is a place where you should go to have a really, really expensive dinner and drinks, because there are performers (acrobats and stuff). It’s ridiculously expensive, though, and a little bit farangy.

Here’s a picture of the toilet with really big buttons which confused me and made me unsure of how to flush the toilet:

I realized I take a lot of pictures of toilets, so maybe I should start a blog that’s just pictures of toilets.

WTF, Palmy

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palmy

Seriously, what? She’s the Lady Gaga of Thailand (since before there was Lady Gaga)

 

First World Problem:

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I'M STARVING

I’m hungry, but I’m too lazy to make food or walk outside and buy food. I’ve been hungry for almost 2 hours now. What the hell is wrong with me!?

This morning I woke up at 9 AM and was hungry, but had nothing to eat and was too lazy to go buy food, so I went back to sleep… and then I didn’t eat until 2 PM.

I think I’m possibly trying to subconsciously starve myself.

Happy Halloween!

Seeing all the posts on Reddit of everyone’s cool Halloween costumes makes me sad. I never thought I’d miss Halloween this much.

Thanks for co-opting all my plans, flood.

Happy Halloween, guys! Go to Disneyland for me!

Fun (or not) facts about the flood

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flood

Currently, I’m in Udon Thani, but I’ll probably be heading back to Bangkok very soon (I miss it so much, even if it’s underwater). But don’t worry, my area is unlikely to flood very much.

Here are a few things that I think are interesting that you might or might not already know about.

- Water and instant noodles have been in limited supply for weeks in stores all around Bangkok. Right now they are nearly impossible to find. This is now also true of rice and eggs, among other things. Also, these things have also shot up in price in the last few days.

- People are dying by electrocution and crocodile. In Nonthaburi, there are crocs loose from croc farms, and they’ve been offering rewards for anyone who can catch one. Several people have died.

- All over Bangkok, people are parking their cars on the bridges and expressways to escape the rising water. This is because many of the big mall parking lots have long been full.

- Many, many Bangkok residents are fleeing to nearby provinces, so there’s lots of traffic on roads out and flights out of Suvarnabhumi are nearly impossible to find. Also, hotel rooms in places like Hua Hin and Pattaya are getting more and more difficult to find.

- Thai people love to help others, and almost everyone I know has been out filling sandbags or donating necessities to flood victims. There’s been such a huge outpouring of help that I’ve never seen before (though I’ve never experienced such a large scale disaster first hand).

That’s all I can think of right now… if I think of more I’ll add them!

I’ve made an important decision.

I’ve decided I can’t go to Brick Bar anymore. I’m pretty sure it’s giving me cancer.

Look what I got!

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Toy Story

It’s one of the aliens from Toy Story!

Or is it…?

Find out after the jump!

Yesterday’s adventure: Terminal 21

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Terminal 21

Terminal 21 is Bangkok’s 2 week old mall at Asok. Literally right off the Asok BTS, it’s very easy to get to.

This place is great. Really. Everyone should go there. I mean, shopping wise, it isn’t Central World (I mean, there’s no Forever 21), but it’s definitely a fantastic place to just walk around and take loads of pictures and USE THE BATHROOM. It’s been described as the Epcot of malls.

So it’s called Terminal 21 because it’s got this ‘traveling the world’ theme. Each floor is a different destination and is decorated accordingly. And the bathrooms… THE BATHROOMS ARE POSSIBLY THE BEST BATHROOMS IN THAILAND. I’m not kidding.

The signs at the escalator on each floor are like the signs for airport terminals! The top level was the movie theater, so it was Los Angeles <3

The view from the top -

San Francisco! The food level -

Istanbul -

Tokyo -

A selection of fantastic bathrooms: London, Tokyo, and Paris -

Look at all the buttons!!! The seats are heated. There’s a bidet. Trust me, you should press the DRY button.