Written on June 21, 2010.
Bangkok is turning out to be a really fun and exciting place to be for me!! I've begun teaching in the school and have been out and about town since my 1st weekend here. So far, everything is going great!
I'm based in Prawet, a district near the Suvarnabhumi Airport - its pronounced as sur-va-nah-bum. It was mostly a residential area. Actually in Bangkok there is no clear definition as to where there are industrial, residential and business area. It's just all mixed up. For example, just at the entrance to my apartment there is a factory and right next to it a block of flats on the right and a house on the left followed by a restaurant cum house next to it. Here'a a view from my balcony!
Looking at it, its hard to tell what building is what until you go closer and have a look. Just opposite the main road is a big private hospital too. Things are just so random here. Then there is always lots of big rivers and there was one flowing just behind my apartment block. Again, you can see the brown roof huts is an entertainment outlet, sound like a karaoke place to me and just behind that is a cluster of houses.
Then I noticed this guy on a raft in the river, at first it looked like he was fishing then he was messing with the vegetation there, of course I thought that was like food for him. But I found out later from the reception lady of my apartment that I was wrong, he was moving the plants away so that the mosquitoes don't breed there. Such things that I amuse myself with on a Saturday morning.
I was posted at St George's International School, it was a very beautiful and eco-friendly school. They had a huge playground, a football field and a swimming pool. Here is the entrance to the school. The building on the right is the office. It looks grand, doesn't it!
The classrooms in this school were really big and spacious. I had only 8 children in my class and a teaching assistant too!! It was grand. All the teachers here are foreigners from England, Scotland and Australia, while the teaching assistants and office staff were Thais. Overall, they were all very friendly, welcoming and helpful throughout my stint here.
I've been out to a few places in Bangkok but not to all the major tourist spots yet! I'm saving that for later. The food here has been great too. At school they serve a mixture of western and local Thai food for lunch, so i've been enjoying it all!! Then the food by the roadsides too are great, although most time I don't really know what it is. I try to find out with some of my basic Thai and lots of hand and sign language. But I've learned to just 'whack' only.
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| Desert : Crispy pancake filled with cream and carrots. They have it with other fillings too! |
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| Thai's equivalent to 'satay' and can be found at every street corner. |
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| Mixed rice |
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| Pork stir fried with peppercorns. It's really spicy! |
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| Roadside stalls like these can be found on almost every street. |
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| A simple dinner |
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| Pad Thai Noodles |
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| Fried Bugs!! I couldn't bring myself to try any of it! |
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| Red Tom Yum Goong |
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| Clear Tom Yum Goong |
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| My favourite Thai food - beef noodles (Pho Bo) |
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| Thai Papaya Salad with Salted Crab |
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| RegularThai Papaya Salad |
I've had so many types of different Thai food, its amazing that there is still much more to go. I will definitely be exploring more. I also love the coconut water, here its sweeter and the pink guava. It's very refreshing to bite into it after spending the whole day walking around in the heat.
