Early in the morning we were moving through the outskirts of Bangkok. It looked like a true megacity. By 7am, we reached the South terminal in Bangkok. We got down and now we had to find our way to the hostel. Here nobody could speak in english and neither could we find an information centre. We were communicating in a mix of english keywords and sign languages. I also taught Siva how to speak in an english that they will understand. Speak slow and use only keywords. Forget the grammar. Use excessive facial expressions. That was the rule. And once you have understood, give a thumbs up sign and say thank you. We also found that they could read the names of places written in english. So we used the print out of our hostel confirmation to communicate. After a 30min effort, we managed to find out our bus. Siva was getting a little frustuated that they don’t understand english. I knew that it was our choice to come to their country and hence we should be thankful for whatever help we get. Show utmost patience and respect to the locals and enjoy communicating without knowing the language. I believe that is what travelling is about.

In the bus, we managed to find a lady who knew english. So we could now easily ask her on how to get to our hostel. She asked us to get down at a bus stop and we got into the skybus. We took a day pass for the skytrain and got down at On Nut station. We followed the directions given in the hostel confirmation maik to get to Ma Dee, our hostel. It was a beautiful air conditioned hostel at a low price of 150 Baht per person. We took some rest, got fresh and moved out.

We did not have any particular plans for the day. So we decided to do some shopping and try different food from local eateries. Bangkok is surely a great place for shopping, and the best part is that its quite cheap too.

Now it came to trying out the food. Now to all those people who would freak out by the mention of abnormal food, you may stop reading here. First we tried a food which was a mix of noodles, boiled chicken legs, liver and god only knows what else! It was different but nothing great about it. We also tried a few fruit juices for which I have no idea of their names or to describe it. As we moved on the street, we could see a person selling something in a basket. As we came closer, we could find something jumping around in it. It was small live shrimps! The preparation was simple; mix the live shrimps with some masala and that is it. It is ready to eat. I wanted to try it out. We bought one packet for 30 Baht and sat to have it. It was still jumping around in the closed packet. I took one and had it. Well, it tastes like raw shrimp. Can’t explain it more than that. But when you take it for the first time, you will think that it is alive inside your mouth. The next bite, you will think that its just a shrimp. And the third time on, you will start taking spoonfuls!! That is first experience of eating something alive!! The eating experiments continued till dinner and we surely had a great tummy and the attitude to try new food.

Day 7 expense: Rs. 453
Total: Rs. 16,053

berT
15.03.2011
Location: Bangkok, Thailand