A lot has happened since I last wrote here.
We went to visit ‘Tip, she was staying at her sister’s house from Wed. to Sunday so that she could rest and relax before starting back at work on Monday. Tip came to us last Thursday to do some ironing, which she does much better than I, as well as some cooking. ‘Tip made us a Thai meal of Pork Omelet, with stir fried morning glory. It was delicious.
- ‘Tip cooking for us.
We went to another lecture series at the museum. This time the first lecture was called “Wat Hopping” about some of the differnet temples, around Bangkok, and their mural paintings. We decided to go to one of them and it was interesting to study the wall murals rather than just look at the temple. You can just make out the mural behind the Buddha image showing the world according to Buddhist cosmology.
The other lecture was about Spirit houses which are everywhere on Bangkok streets. I have heard this lecture before, years ago, and it is just as fascinating and informative
Went out for dinner with two couples to The Fish Market opposite our hotel. It is a huge place, a cross between a supermarket, aquarium and restaurant. One goes “shopping” with a trolley and picks up the fish/seafood it is judged will be needed for the group (always better to go with a group) as well as any vegetables one feels the need of. Then it is off to the liquor store to buy the wine and thus sit down and wait for the dishes to be prepared. We had a very jolly and delicious evening chatting about all sorts of things, most of which seems to have escaped my head at the moment.
In amongst all this I managed to get to MBK, a cheapish indoor shopping experience, where I was able to buy a few items. Happily too, the Thai Craft Sale was taking place on one of the Saturday mornings and I went shopping to it. Unfortunately the night market, Lumpini Park, has now been closed down. it was a wonderful noisy place full of stalls selling all kinds of interesting items as well as a live stage where all types of amateur singing and dancing acts performed. Also every kind of street food you could imagine all sold in a clean environment together with beer and wine. A very civilised place. Now the whole area is just left to return to the jungle despite threats of it being built on sometime soon.
Another sad event, we discovered, was the closing of a great pub in Bangkok, one of the best British pubs outside the British Isles. Apparently the owner of the building decided this pub was becoming very popular and thus increased the rent by a huge amount which the owner of the business said couldn’t be done and so didn’t pay it. The case went to court but the owner of the building won (probably by the use of “Tea Money”). The owner then gave the business 11 days to vacate the premises and a big farewell party was planned but in the end they were kicked out after only 4 days. The pub was called the Bulls Head, off Sukhumvit, and was very well run by Billy. To cut a long story short Billy now finds himself half owner of another pub, The Barbican, off Silom Rd. Now we have found it we shall go there as often as is feasible while we are in Bangkok. I guess shit happens but it really was most unfair. The Bulls head is still a pub, with a new name, terrible food and absolutely no atmosphere. We shall not return there.
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