Everything here is saying, "eat me!!! eat me!!!" - well, the food that is. And it is so hard to resist. It is everywhere and it looks and smells so good.
Today after a light breakfast - fruit, boiled rice soup with fish, some noodles and vegetables, I set out on my week's mission - finding a laundry.
I knew of a laundry place that is tucked away on a soi off of Silom Road near the hotel I used to stay at that was called the Tower Inn. It is now a Unico Hotel and it is not as cheap as it used to be (I hope they change the air-conditioners in the rooms now that they are charging more). Anyway, the laundry place was cheap from what I remembered. Cheaper than what the hotel charges, but it is a few blocks away from here. I was sure I could find something closer.
The past few days I have been combing the sois around my hotel to see if I could spot something. There is a place I used before that looks like a dry cleaner and they seemed confused when I brought t-shirts before. But as I left the hotel this morning with a black trash bag filled with clothes a taxi driver standing outside said, "laundry?". I asked him if there was one nearby and he directed me to the place around the corner that is a dry cleaner. I decided to go and check it out before heading over to Silom.
When I went in, I saw that they had price lists for dry cleaning and laundry. They were asking 40 baht per shirt, which is about the same as the hotel charges. I told them never mind and left.
As I headed over towards Silom Road, I passed another place. Again I went in and checked the prices and again it was per piece and the same as my hotel. If I was going to pay those prices, I would just have my hotel do it and deliver the clothes the next day.
And so I went over to Silom Road, past what used to be the Tower Inn and found the little laundry place tucked away in a little quiet soi. They charge 5-10 baht per piece and a t-shirt was 10 baht instead of 40 (1 dollar = 33 baht,so that is kind of expensive).
After dropping my clothes off, I wandered down a little street that has a market. I used to go there regularly to buy fresh fruit - pineapple, mango, etc. I wanted to take some photos. There was food everywhere, yummy, aromatic, fresh and tempting food. I saw a group of foreigners crowded around one stall and then noticed they had little baskets and were collecting ingredients. It must be one of the other cooking schools. I'm glad we don't have to go around with little baskets and go shopping in a group.
I bought a kilo of mangosteens for 20 baht (less than a dollar) and a container of sticky rice with mango for 30 (they charge 80 at MBK food court). I then went searching for a guy I saw deep frying bananas while I was looking for the soi with the laundry place, but I couldn't find him. I thought he was on the other side of the street, but he wasn't. He must have moved. Walking up Silom Road however, I did find someone else selling fried banana chips. They were dipped in batter and deep fried with sesame seeds. They were really yummy and I ate quite a few before giving the bag to a very down-and-out looking guy who was stumbling down the street (it was hard to look at him, but it looked like his shorts were covered in blood). He gave me a wai and thanked me in Thai and English.
After dropping off my purchases, I headed to MBK. My plan was to eat and get an "eye treatment" and then go to school.
I arrived and went straight upto the food court. I had a beef noodle soup with Chinese herbs. It was not that good. I thought it was this beef noodle soup I really like that I get at the weekend market, but it didn't have a very good flavor. I then went and got a Thai desert - assorted little jellies and things in coconut milk with chopped ice on top. Very yummy.
From there I wandered around a little, looking for socks because the pair I put on this morning ripped when I was putting them on. I didn't find any socks I liked, but did see some things I might buy later.
I then headed down to the 3rd floor for my eye treatment. Since my facial the bags and dark circles under my eyes have become more apparent. Nice Face offers an "eye treatment" exactly for that. Instead of Nice Face however, I tried another place a few doors down. The woman at Nice Face standing outside trying to get customers kind of creeped me out. She was a little too friendly if you know what I mean.
I don't know the name of this place.
I laid down on the reclining chair and the treatment began. It felt like a facial. Again with the very cold creams. This time she was massaging my face and circling around my eyes. At one point she was pinching my skin with some metal object and it really hurt. I was thinking of the saying, "beauty is pain" and wondering how women endure some of the things that are done to them in the name of beauty. I could do without the pain.
Finally, she finished and I headed to school. I thought I was late, but the morning session went over and we had to wait until about 1:40 (class is supposed to begin at 1:30)
There were four other students today besides me and the Malaysian guy. One guy was Scottish and the other three wer from England. The Malaysian guy is really getting on my nerves with the picture taking, but fortunately, the other students didn't follow suit today. As he was taking photos one of the British women, just grabbed the food and then we all followed. I was so glad. I was really getting tired of having to wait for everyone to take their photos of the demonstration food. This guy has this huge camera and takes several shots of everything. You'd think by now he would have gotten it out of his system.
We made a jungle curry with beef, chicken soup with coconut milk (always one of my favorites), stir fried glass noodles with shrimp and these cute little packages filled with shrimp and chicken. For desert we made a banana custard that was steamed.
I am so full now and really ready to sleep, even though it is only 6:45. I might try taking a little nap and then going out for a walk.
Tomorrow is my last day in Bangkok for now. It's been a fun time and I have really been enjoying the cooking classes. When I come back after Bali, I might try a bike tour. I think there is still so much I could do here, and thanks to the internet I have more access to the possibilities than I ever did before.
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