part 2

we carried on on Saturday by visiting the MBK mall - a HUGE place that we wandered round awestruck and wishing we had an appetite when we saw the food court, but we were still full.

tuk tuk for the achy feets

Korean Pop

We kept on going, and took the skytrain and then a ferry up river to Ko San Backpackers area where we hung out, drinking Leffe blonde, and eating delicious street food before succumbing to a delicious foot massage. Full ON Birthday!

ferry

sawadeeka

Sunday we were up and out to Chattachuk Market  we wandered round in the hot and humid market stopping for ice coffees and lunch to fortify ourselves. The range of goods on sale - both tourist tat, and otherwise was incredible (if I ever need a chicken egg brooder, I know where to find one)

after resting we went to the sleazy Pat Poi area - which wasn't so sleazy, though Lon kept being shown "menus' for the shows, which were pretty mindboggling.

More Leffe in the Irish pub as well as a pie for dinner! Sad I know, but there are no Irish pubs in Dhaka! Actually there are no pubs as such in Dhaka!

Monday was our last full day, so we went on a more cultural outing to The Grand Palace - Wat Pragaew, and to the reclining Buddha Wat Po

46 meters long and 15 meters high, this huge golden is the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand. Sadly, the busloads of Russian tourists took away any feeling of spirituality from the temple, but the scale of the Buddha was incredible.


The Grand Palace was a wonderful place to wander round - a brief but strong shower had increased the humidity even higher, and it was sticky to say the least!

meridian guides

farting buddha?

Our afternoon saw us worshipping at the Tesco Lotus and Big C superstores in Rama 4 - picking up fresh veggies and some products which are either not available in Dhaka, or at prices we aren't prepared to pay. 

Our time in Bangkok just gave us a taste for Thailand, we definitely want to go out further afield to explore. The ease of transport was fantastic, in just one day we'd been on a tuk tuk, in a taxi, on the metro, skytrain and a ferry - all cheap and clean and easy to use! The food was delicious, the coffees were great, and there was even Leffe beer available. It was certainly a memorable birthday weekend.

4 nights actually...

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

So we and a great number of people from Dhaka set off over the Eid al-Adha weekend to Bangkok.  We arrived late-ish on Friday night, and wandered round the Sukhumvit area where we were staying to find food, and the meeting point at the Emporium for the next days cooking adventure.

Cooking with Poo http://www.cookingwithpoo.com/

we were met by Poo and her team at 8.30 and went off to a big local market
- scroll down with caution as there are some pretty gory pics

fresh veggies

semi skinned frog

Isan delicacies

bag o' bugs

Poo holding up waterbug

powders and pastes

yellow watermelon tastes like - watermelon

they still had  a few more

freshly made..

de-boned feet

snackages

seasonings

At Poo's cooking school in the Klong Toey slum

lemongrass salad ingredients

Even Lon cooked!

Massaman curry spices

the result!

arty shot!

The food we made was scrummy and it was a great way to see a part of the city we would never have ventured into alone.  Poo was an enthusiastic and patient teacher, and her team were great too.  If you are ever in Bangkok, we highly recommend.

Progress

Well we are all moved in to our new, quiet apartment!

hallway

kitchen

kitchen

store/laundry room

open space

study

study

dining room

master bedroom

master bedroom

master bathroom

balcony off bedroom

Well, it's already much more habitable. Apart from the toaster and one of the hard drives, we have found most of the things we need to function for the time being.

We are however in limbo again, waiting for the air-conditioners and hot water boilers to be installed. We have tried to keep things away from the airco sites, so that the tech guys can reach the walls, and I don't want to open more boxes as the contents will just get scattered/broken/covered in plaster dust.

On a positive note, we have borrowed a gas cooker from the embassy, and it's plumbed in, and so is the washing machine (deep happiness all round - Helen was getting back ache from all the handwashing), the cable tv is installed, and we also have wifi installed. This was much more complicated than it should have been.  As this is a new apartment, it comes with LAN cabling in the walls, and even a few rooms in which there are jack points to set it up. Fantastic one would think. The person who bought the jack points wasn't aware that you need a LAN jack, not a phone point, and there were many many attempts to stick a LAN jack in a phone point, the guy who came to fix it even put the old plate back on and was surprised when it didn't fit.  Next we had router issues, our fully functioning, CISCO router couldn't be made to work, so we bought yet another new one and WIFI at last.

But the best news is the water filter! we have a tap that comes out above the sink, with safe water.
The old apartment had a super duper hot and cold filter, that was huge, and we had no decent space to put it in the rather smaller kitchen we have now.  I think the water filter guy couldn't get his head round why we would want the less fancy option, it took a lot of persuasion to get this model.

left side drinking water, right side normal water

filter arrangement - like the power supply

this is the bucket filling "sink" on the balcony

In other news - our driver's wife had a cesarean on Monday, their 3rd daughter, so we got traditional sweets! He was hoping for a boy, but is happy enough. His wife has had some complications and has had to go to a different hospital. We hope that all goes well.

We are off to Bangkok tomorrow for a few days - first time in Thailand for us!

Road 81 house 8D Gulshan 2

After a long and frustrating period of apartment hunting, interspersed with brief bouts of illness (better now), and quite a lot of stress we got the keys to our new apartment this afternoon.

The movers come tomorrow, and the painters and pest control guys were still working today.  It's a new build, so there are lots of teething troubles that we anticipate surprising us.

Our timetable was quite pushed because next weekend is the Eid vacation (and we are off to Bangkok), and we wanted to be out of our current place AS-bloodyAP as they are now working from 6.50 to 22.30! (also so as not to be paying rent twice in November), on top of that Lon has a field trip the first week in November, and I'm tagging along!

So, tomorrow and Thursday the movers will move our boxes down 5 flights of stairs, and then up two.  We will continue to sleep / eat for a few days at Road 79 to allow ourselves some time to get sorted out, and to get TV and internet in the new place organized.

We'll post house pictures once we have arranged our belongings.