September 2 (Sunday)
C'Mon 'N Ride It (The Train)
The to-do list for Sunday was pretty simple: Chatuchak Weekend Market. It's an outdoor (though largely covered) market with enough corridors that one could very easily get lost. It's located very close to a skytrain station, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out a new form of public transportation. As previously mentioned, there isn't any skytrain station near our hotel, so we did have to take a taxi to the nearest station. It was an easy trip, notable only for the fact that our cab driver would tweeze his eyebrows at red lights. The skytrain works like the subway in most major cities I've been to: buy a ticket then feed it through a turnstile and head to the platform. The only real catch is that the ticket machines only take 5 and 10 baht coins, but even then there are either change machines or a ticket window you can use if you don't have change.
Shop 'til You Drop
Getting from the skytrain station to the market is as simple as walking in the same direction as everyone else. Once you get in it's a good idea to be methodical, because if you go at it all willy-nilly you will miss all sorts of stuff. Another important thing to keep in mind is that when you see something you want, especially if it's a unique item, you should buy it now. You'll think you can find your way back, but you probably can't. As for what sorts of things you can buy: damn near anything. There's all the same souvenir-type stuff you'll find everywhere else, but so much more. Chuck Taylors? Check. Huge paintings? Check. Pants? Check. Used leather motorcycle racing suits? Yeah, they've got that too. It's pretty nuts and, for the most part, prices aren't bad either. As you've likely guessed, this is another place where haggling is mandatory.
When lunch time rolled around we found that the market's got you covered for that too. In addition to vendors selling water, soda, and popsicles there are sit-down restaurants in there. We picked one, had a decent meal, and headed back out. Along with all the novelty t-shirts and what I'm pretty sure was a guy selling puppies we found the area where they sell books. If you need a book about Microsoft Excel in Thai or a German-Lao dictionary they can hook you up. This also happened to be the point in the day when it decided to rain. Our luck continued to hold out because, as you might imagine, the part of the market full of books is pretty water-tight. After we finished browsing the books and making one last sweep through some of the areas we didn't cover thoroughly we figured it was about time to be moving on.
We'd decided that one good market deserves another, so the next stop was going to be Pak Khlong Talat, a large flower market. Emboldened by our success with the skytrain we decided to try taking the metro since it had stops in Chatuchak market and in Yaowarat and Phahurat (the district containing the flower market). Taking the metro was largely similar to the skytrain except that it runs underground and, instead of a ticket with a magnetic strip, you get a small, round plastic token that contains some variety of RFID technology. You just tap it to the turnstile on the way in and then deposit it in a slot on your way out.
Very Little Trouble In Little China
The metro station in Yaowarat and Phahurat is on the far east side of the district and the flower market is on the far west, but Chinatown is in between and it was supposed to be neat, so we opted to hoof it. Getting a GPS fix was surprisingly difficult, so we had to rely on old-fashioned maps, but once we saw the big neon signs sporting Chinese characters we knew that we had found Yaowarat Road. The area had a different look and feel than other parts of Bangkok, though I suspect we didn't get the full effect since it was a Sunday evening and things, while far from deserted, weren't as crowded as the guidebooks made it sound. As we walked I bought some pomegranate juice from one of the many vendors juicing them right on the street (there were probably 8 carts on the block I bought mine on) and Charlie picked up a mooncake from a bakery. The pomegranate juice gets my endorsement. The mooncake, not so much.
After a bit more walking we reached the flower market and I daresay it lived up to expectations. The market stretched on for blocks and had tons of flower for sale. My ability to identify flowers drops off rather sharply once we get any more obscure than roses, but I can say that the market boasted variety in addition to quantity. We'd arrived a bit after the sun had gone down and the way the stalls were lit made for a very pleasant stroll.
Once we reached the far side of the market I checked the map and saw that we were very nearly at Wat Pho, which, as you may recall, we'd visited on our first day. Since we'd only seen this area in the daylight before we decided to walk back to the hotel. Although I wouldn't quite call the area dead, the amount of activity on a Sunday night doesn't even come close to midday on a Monday. Combine that with the evening's much more manageable temperature and you've got yourself a very nice stroll.
Kebab's Your Uncle
By the time we got back to the hotel it was too late to do anything big, but still a bit too early to call it a night. We decided to find something to eat nearby and since Khao San is pretty international we thought we'd try something other than Thai food tonight. The Chabad house was supposed to be pretty good and there probably weren't going to be many other chances to have Israeli food in Thailand, so we decided to give it a shot. Interestingly, I think that this was the only time on the trip where we actually felt a bit out of place. I suspect most of that had to do with the security guard at the door who, upon learning that we weren't Jewish, informed us that we shouldn't visit the second floor or use the restrooms. Feeling a bit out of place didn't stop us from enjoying an excellent meal though, and once we were full of kebab we headed back to pack and plan.