7/27/10 (bangkok)
Annie LinBangkok
For lunch we met up with a former student of mine from the California Culinary Academy (CCA), Saruth, and his girlfriend. Saruth studied at CCA and then returned to Thailand end of last year when he was finished with the program. He’s currently collaborating with a friend to open a café on the first level of a major shopping center called Emporium. We went to Lemoncello, a restaurant that Paul recommended for pizza. We had been craving good pizza since we have been on the road and were excited to give the place a try. The pizza wasn’t bad though I would’ve preferred a little more tomato sauce.
Then we decided to give the Grand Palace another try since it was closed when we went the other day with Pai and Saruth hadn’t been there before. The traffic in Bangkok is crazy and especially where Paul lives it is always congested. Finding parking isn’t always easy as well but Saruth finally found a spot in an alley. As soon as he parked a guy approached him and Saruth gave him some money. Saruth explained that although the guy isn’t an official parking attendant and has no connection to or ownership of the street it is an unspoken understanding that you will give the guy some money to look after your car. If you refuse, then you may find your car scratched or tire slashed when you return. Good to know for future reference. As we arrived at the intersection before the Grand Palace there were road blocks set up. No one was allowed to cross the street. Saruth asked around and found out that the prince was coming to the palace because it was a national holiday and no one would be allowed into the palace for another hour. It was really humid and we decided not to wait. Once again the palace refused our entry.
We parted ways with Saruth at the Paragon, another shopping mall. They were going to catch the movie, The Inception, and we decided to walk around and check out the mall. We’ve been told that there are only a few things to do in Bangkok and one of them in shopping. It is amazing how many malls there are in the city. It seems there is one on every block in the center of town. We decided no good can come from us being in a really expensive mall so decided to head back home.
We relaxed and stayed in for the night and enjoyed Paul’s movie collection.
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