Public Transport and Race Day

Public transportation is a solvable puzzle and the more we learn the more pieces we find. A few of us make a bit of a game of it , plus it gives a reason to learn to learn to read some very basic Thai. Here are a few pictures of the options.

Main klong boat station: fastest way to certain areas of the city. 

Song tao. They seem to travel a loop. You get on and pay 7 THB when you get off.  You sometimes find yourself leaping off if it turns off the main road but we do have plans to ride one weekend to "see" where they go. So far we can get to Makro (like Costco and the place for the resident Dutchman to get his cheese fix), and fashion Island Mall which has one of the main cinemas. Other than that, we know they go up and down the main road. 

Fancy, air-conditioned bus.

Not so fancy, non-airconditioned bus. Note the open doors.

It's all fun, although some think we are crazy. You have to focus more but we also learn a lot about the city.

Our little running group is slowly growing and those who are in town are often willing to get up early on a Sunday morning to take part in a race/fun run. This time it was 7 km away from where most of us live and up the main street, Ramkhamhaeng. Well, since we are the Ramkhamhaeng Runners we thought we had to show up and represent.

Becky (from Colorado and on her way to Zambia next year with husband and 2 kids) and I travelled down to registartion to pick up shirts etc for Sunday's race...11.4 km. We met these two Kenyans who travel and race around the world. Except not Canada and the US since Visas are more difficult to get according to them.

5 am at the race venue and still an hour until it starts. We all feel super groggy and wonder out loud why we do this.

Post-race. Now we remember why we do this!!!

The race took place at NIDA which is a business school.

Main entrance

There were two separate categories for the top male and female finishers: Foreigners and Thai. Our speedy Jenn won the foreigner's trophy and out buddy from the day before won the foreigner plus overall.

Female Thai and foreigner winners.

Jenn became an instant celebrity. She's off to Moscow next year with her husband.

We had to curtsy in front of the picture of the princess, which I have never done before. I was told it looked more like a pirouette. Maybe I should have been a dancer?

I came 5th in my age category. Next time I'll try to be a little more colour-coordinated.

Jenn being a celebrity with the dressup winners. 

 The guy placed #2 in teh over 60....running in  a mask cannot be easy.

With the change of seasons comes pollution and although we rarely feel it, we did today since we were definitely closer to the downtown area.

Brunch and Sushi

 A while back we hosted brunch at our placce so that kids could come and play while it's still light out...plus we love brunch! Marc and Kay (left) and Farrah (lots of hair and Canadian) are friends who came the same time as us.

The men were solving the worlds problems in our porch/driveway.

Vince and I found ourselves in a mall one day and while looking for something simple for lunch ended up with a really neat, high tech experience.

Step #1: Using the Ipad choose up to four items.

 Why 4? Well, that's because 4 is the number of items that this little race car/serve can hold. It arrives on a track with your food. Super fun.

Empty

...and right outside the hi-tech we have the incredible array of wires that power Bangkok.

This picture was taken by a friend on her street. Darcy explains "I finally got a picture of: our neighbour, who sells grilled pork skewers on the corner, gets electricity to her stand by stringing a giant extension cord over the street and illegally hooking to the power lines. Every single day.

 Yes, I do work.....a couple of my science buddies (Titan and Rhu) going rogue on a simple science experiment. We had a lot of kids out with the flu so there were extra materials (batteries) and they strung together as many as they could find. They also found out that you can get a shock:) Still smiling though.

Local news at the Villa.....a cobra caught this weekend.

At the local coffee shop...canine enjoying the view.

Sunday Brunch, Terminal 21 and Wai Cru Day

Las Sunday, Vince went off to Korea and Colby and I decided to go on a bus adventure with the goal being brunch at a restaurant called Hemmingways in the city. Riding the bus is always fun and usually a puzzle to figure out times, connections etc bus etc but the more we do it, the better we get. It is almost as efficient as taking a taxi but way more fun.

The bus routes are online and we also have a map but since we don't read Thai we sometimes miss out on notices of limited hours etc. For example, this songtau goes down our main street but we don't know where since we can't read. We are pretty sure they drive in loops so will hop on it one day and figure it out. You can always jump off. 

Two busses, a stop at a market and a subway ride later we are at our destination, Hemmingway's which is named after Ernest. It's a beautiful spot with great food and a super atmosphere. It's also really difficult to believe that you are in the middle of a city. We are trying to see some classic and weird downtown sites on our weekends that we are in Bangkok.

I have wanted to go to a mall I had heard about called Terminal 21 in which every level is a different country and I have heard that the was a replica of the London Tower Bridge. We found the mall and it was pretty interesting and high end shopping. As it turned out, it was the Golden Gate Bridge but it wowed us anyway.

 They also had some great little artsy stores and these super chandeliers.

Crossing one street, I was suddenly taken by the very white view of the city. It's rare to get such a look so I had to take a picture.

We had two busses to take back home and after one didn't show up at all we walked 700 m to the klong and took the trusty boat home. We are getting pretty comfortable with the various ways of travelling although, I have to admit that some think we are crazy. I like the figuring out part.

On another note, we have an outbreak of the flu at school so they disinfected the rooms.....I love the sign they put on after they are done.

It was recently Wai Cru Day in Thailand where students pay their respect to teachers and thank them for all they have learned. it's a beautiful ceremony that ends with each student in our homeroom presenting us with flowers. That's Alis, my neighbour and friend in the background.

It's monthly Bunko Night (girls) and Poker Night (guys) in the neighbourhood. Colby and I got there late since we went for a run and I guess it's easy to see that none of us own cars.

Pre-Bunko run. The temperature is starting to creep up but we fit in a good run after school before all of the good food at Bunko. That's Colby in the middle and Jenn. They both leave this year....Colby back home to Portland and Jenn and her husband are heading to Moscow. 

Minburi Market

With a wee bit of jet lag on my second day back, Vince and I decided that we had better get out and do something so we didn't hang around all day. I figured I fall asleep in a movie which wouldn't help much so we decided on a trip to Chattachuk 2 (aka Minburi Market) , a market fairly nearby. Half of the adventure is getting there so we skipped the taxi and tried a songtau (small pickup truck with two benches). We cannot read the destinations on the side but we do know that the "blue top #99" is the one we want. For 7 baht (25 cents) it's great entertainment.

Song tau.....not 99 blue top but same idea.

Fish for sale. 

Crickets for feeding some other pet.....

Not sure what these are but they were super creep crawlie.

Random picture of a few of the middle school teachers at our school trip. They certainly know how to have fun.

Recently, we had a puppet show presented to the Middle school and these puppets were so realistic and the puppeteers were so skilled that one quickly forgot that they were not real.

At the mall....head massager.

 With about 1 1/2 years left in Thailand, we have started a bit of a "list of things still left to do" and many of them can be done in a few hours so we decided to make make use os a cooler Saturday morning and head to the National Science Museum about 40 away from the city. It actually turned out to be three museums which kept us busy for three hours. The main museum has an impressive entry.

I don't even know what this was all about.

 It was a classic science museum with lots to do and buttons to push and also served as a preview for me since we might be doing a science trip there in April.

The pre-historic section was a riot....all of the animals moved and roared.