We woke up early Sunday morning and were both starving. We hurried to get ready- without a flat iron for me is kindof tricky. The voltage is different over here so Eric told me not to even bring it with :( Needless to say, I had to scrunch my hair. I re-wetted it from the night before and before I even turned on the blow dryer, it was curling and frizzing all over the place. Wowza. Anyway- after the Hair-Fiasco, we headed up to "The Lounge" on the 37th floor. Since we are staying in a Suite connecting to Eric's {He's kindof a fancy-pants} we got access to the "Private Lounge" - awesome huh? lol We got off and the receptionist already knew we were coming. Eric had called her, and knows her well, since he stays often. Julia- helped us get our seats, with an incredible view and we got to eat and eat and eat. This place has one thing going for it- you can eat amazing, fresh, delicious fruit until you think your mouth will fall off.
They also made your eggs fresh- however you order them. Something strange to me though- They do not serve traditional breakfast meats, (Ham, bacon, sausage- etc.) There were sliced Deli meats, fresh fruit, Home made Yogurt- Which sounds gross but was super good, fresh baked croissants, French Breads, Dried Fruits, Sticky Rice, Coconut jelly, Fresh honey comb....Ummm...I could go on forever.
It was delicious.
We walked around and around looking at all the buildings for a while. It's just city as far as you can see. Sky scraper- upon- Sky scraper. And traffic- and layers and layers of city. Up high- they have the sky train- their version of a subway-kindof. Then there are the air walks- that are like bridges over the streets and they connect to the upper floors of a lot of the hotels and malls and shopping centers etc. Then theres the actual Ground that is jam packed with street vendors, and taxi's, and street scooters, and motorcycles and busses and vans. There is a person on every square inch of the ground, and under them are the bums and homeless- sitting/laying and begging for food, water, money, or candy. Under them are the street dogs and street cats, then the rats and the garbage. It's just a Big. Huge. City.
We got change from the front desk- we had exchanged our American cash for some Baht in the airport the night before, but they had given us all large bills. The exchange rate is about 30-1, but Eric told us to carry 20's because the cab drivers would notice Americans and claim not to have change.
The Concierge got us a taxi, and we Headed to see Eric at the Bumrungrad International hospital.
I had noticed the night before that the steering wheel was on the opposite side of the vehicle, but I had been tired enough that I did not notice that they also drive on the opposite side of the road. It was scary to me every time we made a right hand turn because there was always a car coming towards us.
When we got to the hospital, we visited with Eric and met most of the doctors and got an update on how he was feeling. They discussed different causes to the problems he had been having and different diagnosis'. He got worn out pretty fast from the morning, so he took a nap and Melanie and I walked down to Suhkimvit Road, to find the Phloen Chit shopping center. To get to there from the Hospital, we had to walk in front of the Pakistan Embassy and through all the street carts and bums. It was intense. In front of the Embassy there were a few beggars, one naked man- passed out in a tree planter, and a little girl. I wanted to give her something, but I couldn't tell if she was a beggar or not. She didn't reach towards the passers-by like the others, she hid her face in the cracks in the wall and wouldn't look at me, so we kept going. We walked through the shopping centers, and decided we were hungry. We stopped at a little Lebanese shop and ordered some Garlic Hummus, Nan bread, and Lemon Garlic Chicken 'pieces' and Pita cheese pies {smal pita rounds with cheese melted on top} for lunch. We have to make sure to ask for bottled drinks everywhere we go- so we don't have to drink the water from the ice when it melts.
The server was Lebanese man and was rude and obviously did not want us there. When he would walk away from our table, he would make rude references towards our table- but I could see his reflection since all the walls were lined with mirrors. Not very smart.
We ate our lunch and finished walking through the shopping center. The funnest part of it all was on the floor below the ground. It was where the locals set up their booths of all their Handi crafts, and there was a small local grocery store. I'm certain the store clerks thought I was insane because I just wandered around in all the fruit and vegetables looking at it all. It literally took up 50% of their store and they had So many cool fruits and vegetables and roots and sprouts....I just loved it.
We bought some little trinkets from the little shops and walked back to the hotel. It was hot and humid, but not unbearable.
The hardest part of the heat was that it just carried all the smells. That is one thing I couldn't ever get over if I lived in this country is the smells. And the rats. Don't forget the rats. Walking by the street vendors was difficult for me to do without gagging. One of the many street carts we passed had two fish tanks rigged up and they were filled with big dead stinky fish- still floating in the water. The gross part was that the fish were there when we walked by the first time, and after lunch- when we walked back they were gone. That means they fed those stinky dead fish to someone. Grody.
When we got back to the hotel, we visited with Eric for a little while and it got to where it was all I could do to stay awake. I finally gave in and went and took a nap on the couch in the other room of Eric's Fancy-Dancy two room suite ;)
I must have been tired because one of Eric's friends came and brought dinner in for us and Melanie visited with her and they clanged around trying to wake me up for dinner and I never knew she even came.
I woke up while Eric and Melanie were eating dinner, and I went and tried to eat, but I just couldn't do it. After sleeping so irregularly and all the smells and the filth of the city fresh in my head, I had absolutely no appetite. Not to mention the food was all pretty weird. I ate some Rice and sauteed vegetables, but that was it. I ended up getting lucky though, because Melanie ate dinner and by the time we got back to the hotel after dinner, she got sick.
When we left the hotel though, we got in a pink cab- which we learned later- the hotel only approves of the green taxi's for the tourists because they are the quality drivers and they run their metes honestly. This guy was a complete jerk and a terrible driver and took us to the back of the hotel so we had to go in the service entrance instead of the front door. Then he tried to charge Melanie 60 Baht for the same drive that cost 45 baht that morning. We finally just got out and left, so I guess he got the brunt of that deal.
Once again we were off to bed. Well-- I was off to bed. Melanie was sick for most of the night.
Not fun.
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