So, we are definately in rainy season....every day it rains and rains.....and rains some more. It's the kind of weather which makes you want to sit inside with a hot chocolate and enjoy being warm inside and dry while it rains outside. Instead, we sit inside because the road is flooded so can't go anywhere, and enjoy the aircon keeping the room cool and dread the thought of humidity after the rain! Mai pen rai......
Saturday was arguably the most boring day of my life here so far....well so I thought.....but I'll get to that....I was roped into representing Thammasat at the International Education Expo at the Queen Sirikit Convention Centre...nice convention centre indeed. And was a huge expo, but the problem is that no one actually came! So we spent the whole day standing around doing nothing.
Dinner was the breakthrough from the boredom when I went to a Japanese buffet for dinner in Ekamai. The buffet was like a normal menu though and you can order anything you like as many times as you want off the menu!! Was pretty good....not amazing, but great value and pretty nice food!
Monday I caught up with Tiew, Yang, Ploy, Nong, Grace and some others to celebrate their end of exams! We went to Bangkok Bar at Khao San. Was actually really nice. Hardly any farang, and there was a live Thai band who played some quality T pop. Thai people dance really funny....think the strangest dance moves you can imagine, including the shopping trolley, the lawn mower, and everything in that category of dance!! But it doesnt stop there...it goes well beyond the shopping trolley and sprinkler dance! You have to see it to understand!
Tuesday proved to me that Saturday was not the most boring day of my life here.....Tuesday was immigration day. So, Grace, Sakumi, Ayaka and I shared a taxi out to the immigration office to extend our visas. Well, the office just moved from its central location where all the farang live to the middle of woop woop where no one lives...even Thais....no one....this place is the definition of woop woop. It took about 1 1/2 hours by taxi to get there, and it turns out to be bigger than an international airport! Inside it looks like a minature city, which is probably necessary given its proximity to nowhere. There is everything....post office, bank, restuarants, monks, grocery store, copy centre, cranky lady to scare young children and exchange students alike, mister donut, and organic vegetable stand.
So, how to extend your visa in Thailand.....
i) Fill in all the forms, despite the fact that they are confusing and require information which does not exist....not information you just don't know, information which doesn't exist, such as the TM 6 form.....there is no TM 6 form, yet, for some reason you're expected to know your number from this form and write it on your application for extention
ii) take a number and sit, and sit, and sit, and wait....and wait......
iii) Get up when the cranky immigration lady at the first desk calls out your number
iv) Go and sit back down and recommence waiting when you are told she didn't call out your number, ....ie, she called out number 18, but actually meant to call out number 17....but think yourself lucky that you are not person number 17 who is currently being eaten by same lady for taking so long to respond to their number which she never actually called out
v) Get up again when number 18 is once again called and sit down at the desk with pile of papers
vi) Find out that the Thammasat office made a huge mistake with their letter for visa extention request and only requested your visa be extended until December....5 months short of the time required
vii) Inform cranky lady that the reason you didnt check the date and ensure the letter was correct before you came was due to the fact that everything was written in Thai and thus you could not read it due to your inability to understand the Thai language, so please don't eat me for wasting your time just now.
viii) Phone the Thammasat office to request a new letter be faxed ASAP....get told that this cannot be done despite the fact that their simple and stupid mistake cost you time and money, hang up, angry
ix) Quickly get up and leave before craqnky lady does actually eat you.
So, taxi back to civilisation and go and see the Thammasat office, after eating delicious green chicken curry for lunch so I was not as angry. New letter got and we will try again! That night went to Emporium where I again tried northern style noodles, and minor breakthrough with the 100 eating secrets list!! Whilst the Haagen Daz icecream mooncakes don't exist...Swensens are making them! They had 4 left!! So got to try one!! Not too bad...very sweet though! But....success....icecream mooncake...check!
Friday had class followed by phad thai with Brooke at Tha Prachan. They have put all these duckboards throughout the pier restaurant area for Loy Kratong.....but the planks really only fit one person, so there's often a moment where it seems one person is going to go head first into the ground below when 3 or more people try and pass at the same place!!
Sunday, managed to tick food secrets 1, 2 and 3 off! Thipsamai....reported to be the best phad thai in Bangkok...and also the best orange juice. Yes yes and yes....it is amazing! Had 2 plates of phad thai...the first, was with prawns, and the 2nd was with prawns and prawn oil....the first was better though. The orange juice is freshly squeezed and so sweet...naturally sweet not with sugar..and has orange in it. So so good! And, food secret number 3 is the iced coconut juice they have there...also amazing! This place has earnt a permanent place on my eating tour for all
Saturday was arguably the most boring day of my life here so far....well so I thought.....but I'll get to that....I was roped into representing Thammasat at the International Education Expo at the Queen Sirikit Convention Centre...nice convention centre indeed. And was a huge expo, but the problem is that no one actually came! So we spent the whole day standing around doing nothing.
The highlight was lunch time when I tried northern style noodles....very nice indeed.
Dinner was the breakthrough from the boredom when I went to a Japanese buffet for dinner in Ekamai. The buffet was like a normal menu though and you can order anything you like as many times as you want off the menu!! Was pretty good....not amazing, but great value and pretty nice food!
Monday I caught up with Tiew, Yang, Ploy, Nong, Grace and some others to celebrate their end of exams! We went to Bangkok Bar at Khao San. Was actually really nice. Hardly any farang, and there was a live Thai band who played some quality T pop. Thai people dance really funny....think the strangest dance moves you can imagine, including the shopping trolley, the lawn mower, and everything in that category of dance!! But it doesnt stop there...it goes well beyond the shopping trolley and sprinkler dance! You have to see it to understand!
Tuesday proved to me that Saturday was not the most boring day of my life here.....Tuesday was immigration day. So, Grace, Sakumi, Ayaka and I shared a taxi out to the immigration office to extend our visas. Well, the office just moved from its central location where all the farang live to the middle of woop woop where no one lives...even Thais....no one....this place is the definition of woop woop. It took about 1 1/2 hours by taxi to get there, and it turns out to be bigger than an international airport! Inside it looks like a minature city, which is probably necessary given its proximity to nowhere. There is everything....post office, bank, restuarants, monks, grocery store, copy centre, cranky lady to scare young children and exchange students alike, mister donut, and organic vegetable stand.
So, how to extend your visa in Thailand.....
i) Fill in all the forms, despite the fact that they are confusing and require information which does not exist....not information you just don't know, information which doesn't exist, such as the TM 6 form.....there is no TM 6 form, yet, for some reason you're expected to know your number from this form and write it on your application for extention
ii) take a number and sit, and sit, and sit, and wait....and wait......
iii) Get up when the cranky immigration lady at the first desk calls out your number
iv) Go and sit back down and recommence waiting when you are told she didn't call out your number, ....ie, she called out number 18, but actually meant to call out number 17....but think yourself lucky that you are not person number 17 who is currently being eaten by same lady for taking so long to respond to their number which she never actually called out
v) Get up again when number 18 is once again called and sit down at the desk with pile of papers
vi) Find out that the Thammasat office made a huge mistake with their letter for visa extention request and only requested your visa be extended until December....5 months short of the time required
vii) Inform cranky lady that the reason you didnt check the date and ensure the letter was correct before you came was due to the fact that everything was written in Thai and thus you could not read it due to your inability to understand the Thai language, so please don't eat me for wasting your time just now.
viii) Phone the Thammasat office to request a new letter be faxed ASAP....get told that this cannot be done despite the fact that their simple and stupid mistake cost you time and money, hang up, angry
ix) Quickly get up and leave before craqnky lady does actually eat you.
So, taxi back to civilisation and go and see the Thammasat office, after eating delicious green chicken curry for lunch so I was not as angry. New letter got and we will try again! That night went to Emporium where I again tried northern style noodles, and minor breakthrough with the 100 eating secrets list!! Whilst the Haagen Daz icecream mooncakes don't exist...Swensens are making them! They had 4 left!! So got to try one!! Not too bad...very sweet though! But....success....icecream mooncake...check!
Wednesday and had awesome lunch at the cafeteria. Had khaow man kai mixed with kai tod...so good! And, then had bannana and coconut milk with khaow niaw (sticky rice) from the nicest canteen lady in the history of the world....she is such a nice lady...always tells me the name of Thai foods which I don't know, and rather than laughing at me, always helps me improve my pronounciation...she's such a nice lady!
Thursday had the first TU 2U....an English teaching program where exchange students teach english to kids in the local community around the university. Is really great fun! After that went to Bombay Blues for Indian for Azumi's birthday! Bombay Blues is very cool.....you can sit at tables on the floor on cushions which are surrounded by red curtains....is all very Arabian Nights esq!! Is that Indian though??? Well, whatever it is, it's very cool!
Highlight of the night was the fish and the chocolate naan....amazing, everyone must try chocolate naan!
Friday had class followed by phad thai with Brooke at Tha Prachan. They have put all these duckboards throughout the pier restaurant area for Loy Kratong.....but the planks really only fit one person, so there's often a moment where it seems one person is going to go head first into the ground below when 3 or more people try and pass at the same place!!
Went home took a nap which turned into a long sleep.....lack of sleep this week! Had a quick dinner at Lung Jars....khai jiaow muu saap (omlette with minced pork) was very good! Then went to 3J to celebrate Azumi's birthday. Was good fun. We sat at the roof top garden with a nice view over BKK!
Saturday and I was back trying to check things off my 100 BKK food secrets list....if anyone wants to see this list just google 100 food secrets Bangkok and it will bring up the webpage! So today I was aiming for fresh made Taiwanese noodles and Japanese at Thaniya at lunch. Problem, the Taiwanese noodle place didn't seem to exist anywhere. Dissapointed I gave up on the 100 food secrets and went to eat kway tiaow which were really good at some random street food vendor in Sala Daeng. Then, met Brooke and James and we all went for langauge exchange and to eat cake at Lenotre....but we went to the Chitlom one which was the main branch and so sooo nice! Oh first we went in search of Zombies because today was the Zombie walk day apparently!! Unfortunately they were gone but Brooke saw them earlier and got some good pictures! 2nd dissapointment of the day was that Lenotre ran out of icecream.....not happy Jan.....but luckily their tiramisu was amazing and I'll forgive them.
Saturday and I was back trying to check things off my 100 BKK food secrets list....if anyone wants to see this list just google 100 food secrets Bangkok and it will bring up the webpage! So today I was aiming for fresh made Taiwanese noodles and Japanese at Thaniya at lunch. Problem, the Taiwanese noodle place didn't seem to exist anywhere. Dissapointed I gave up on the 100 food secrets and went to eat kway tiaow which were really good at some random street food vendor in Sala Daeng. Then, met Brooke and James and we all went for langauge exchange and to eat cake at Lenotre....but we went to the Chitlom one which was the main branch and so sooo nice! Oh first we went in search of Zombies because today was the Zombie walk day apparently!! Unfortunately they were gone but Brooke saw them earlier and got some good pictures! 2nd dissapointment of the day was that Lenotre ran out of icecream.....not happy Jan.....but luckily their tiramisu was amazing and I'll forgive them.
After that, enjoyed another BKK eating secret when went to Khaow Thom 55 in Thonklor....had the best oyster omlette there! Also had bamboo shoots, som stirfired veges, and spicy duck with crispy basil....last one was slightly dissapointing though....but this food was amazing!
Sunday, managed to tick food secrets 1, 2 and 3 off! Thipsamai....reported to be the best phad thai in Bangkok...and also the best orange juice. Yes yes and yes....it is amazing! Had 2 plates of phad thai...the first, was with prawns, and the 2nd was with prawns and prawn oil....the first was better though. The orange juice is freshly squeezed and so sweet...naturally sweet not with sugar..and has orange in it. So so good! And, food secret number 3 is the iced coconut juice they have there...also amazing! This place has earnt a permanent place on my eating tour for all
visitors to Bangkok!
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