..Thai fried rice, no onion no garlic please!

departure

Monday, August 8 At 10:30 AM we get in the car (late as always, and not because we're Neapolitan but simply because we're women!!) heading to Rome Fiumicino from where, at 2:00 PM, a China Airlines flight will take us directly to Bangkok. We arrive at check-in 20 minutes before closing, and... who says that those who arrive late get bad accommodations??? There are no more seats in economy, we'll be placed in business!!!! Let's goooo! The vacation begins in the best possible way. A beautiful plane, very comfortable seats with a personal little TV from which you can watch movies, play games (soccer, skiing, even Mario Bros!!!), order drinks and have the route and the exact point where you are under control.

The flight lasts about 11 hours and time seems to never pass! We meet Massimiliano and Maurizio (also placed in business like us) and, as good Neapolitans, we improvise a game of scopone scientifico to kill time.

bangkok

Tuesday, August 9 At 6:00 AM we finally arrive in Bangkok, we collect our luggage and off we go toward the "Century park hotel" (Bangkok greets us with tremendous traffic, a leaden sky and unbearable muggy heat. Once at the hotel we set down our luggage, take a quick shower and, off we go... euphoric and ready to discover this city. We decide to walk along the "Ratchparop" to immerse ourselves right away in the atmosphere of Bangkok, but the impact is not the best, after about 500/600 meters we need oxygen and clean air. We go into a small shopping mall, a stop at the bar, a breath of air conditioning and... yes, we try again! On both sides of the sidewalks many little alleys wind along from which come cooking smells, stinks, people eating, people going to work, vendors, tourists, all of it concentrated in a few square meters.

For the first time we feel lost and without any sense of direction. After visiting a tourist market (for these things you always find the strength!) we decide to reach the Siam area by taxi. Our stomachs start to rumble, it's lunchtime, I start to worry about what I'll eat, or rather about what I won't eat! (I don't like Asian cuisine!) We have ourselves taken to the "Siam center" where, on the top floor as our trusty Lonely Planet tells us, there's an ice rink, as well as several places to eat. It seems like a good way to cool down, no? too bad that we shamefully fall asleep on a little sofa in the shopping center!!! It's time to go back to the hotel, jet lag has got us! After a good sleep, another shower and a good (so to speak) meal, we have a tuk-tuk take us to the Patpong night market, what a blast! We begin our "shopping" as they say.

There's everything, all fake of course, watches of every brand, shoes, jeans, bags, clothing, paintings.. Needless to say, haggling is a must, almost a ritual. The password that opens the bargaining is "ok, for you best price!" but the price they fire off is always 4/5 times higher than the final one. At every attempt to lower it their response will always be "give me more, give me more!!!" and if you try to walk away because you're not interested in haggling, a voice will surely rise shouting: Madame!! Madame!!! Framing these colorful stalls are the countless "go-go bars" where girls, women and transvestites invite you to drink and watch their shows.

We didn't go in, but from what certain people told us some of the acts are truly circus-worthy! Our opinion of the city is starting to change positively, we decide to go back to the hotel always by "tuk tuk." The drivers race like crazy, they don't slow down in curves, they don't care if the road is wet from the rain and we like this way too much!!!

Wednesday, August 10 The day begins early, armed with a camcorder and a digital camera, by 8:00 AM we're already ready for our first excursion, we'll visit the most important temples and the royal palace. We start with the Wat Traimit which houses the Golden Buddha, then we continue toward the Wat Pho with its enormous reclining Buddha, 15m tall by 46m long, truly evocative. We seem like "Japanese tourists", we photograph and film every tiny detail. An air of calm and mysticism envelops us, the sight of some monks makes us feel truly in another dimension, but here comes the "bad luck" (let's call it that to avoid naming names..) bringing us back to planet earth, my digital camera is dead! It can't abandon me right now, I think and pray, and yet it does...

So much for nirvana, now I'm really annoyed! A cursed "error18" ruins my day, especially because I'm dying of envy for all the photos I see being taken, while we have to settle for seeing the royal palace without being able to take even one! In protest I'd feel like ruining other people's photos by passing in front of the lens at the moment of the shot, but I'm "good"..we'll make do with the camcorder! The royal palace looks like a city within a city surrounded by high crenellated walls, spires, pagodas all accompanied by a sweet melody over the public address system. We then visit the Wat Phra Kaew with the Emerald Buddha, here you can't take photos, which seems fair to me, a bit of solidarity toward us!!! And then Wat Benchamapophit entirely built with Carrara marble.

We spend the afternoon in the Canon service center (instead of going to a nice massage center..) where they inform me that to repair the camera it will take about 2 days and about 200 euros for a problem with the lens. The Naples service center suggests I not have it repaired there because it seems it's actually an electronics problem. Who will be right?? Dunno!.. I give up: 1-0 for bad luck! From today on I'll make do with a disposable camera. The service center isn't in a very central area, we reach it by metro (the famous "sky train" - mind you, bundle up because the air conditioning is set to a Siberian temperature!! - this mishap also lets us see the other face of the city, the less touristy one.

It's incredible to see how the atmosphere you breathe can change, you just have to move a bit away from the center, maybe even just turn the corner and realize that the real traditions, the real Bangkok is another one. Much simpler and less frantic than what I had perceived so far.

Ayuthaya

Thursday, August 11: Ayuthaya The alarm today rings even earlier than usual because we'll visit the ruins of the old capital of Siam, Ayuthaya, about 80km north of Bangkok where we'll visit the Bang Pa-in palace, once the summer residence of the kings of Thailand. Bang pa-in looks more like an enormous golf course, big gardens, little lakes and then typically European buildings (the guide tells us that King Rama 6 loved European architecture very much), it must be the unbearable heat and having to necessarily be covered from head to toe (access is forbidden to anyone not wearing appropriate clothing and I won't tell you how we had to dress up), but this residence has nothing distinctive about it. Absolutely not to be missed, instead, are the ancient ruins of Ayuthaya, the Wat Chai Wattanaram and the Wat Yai Chai Mongkol.

The guide briefly tells us about the history of this city founded by Ramathibodi in 1350 and it was the capital of Siam until 1770 until it was sacked and destroyed by the Burmese. The most important ruins are the pagodas that formed the Wat Phra (the main temple of the city). Unfortunately the visit is very quick and the return to Bangkok is scheduled on a motorboat that will travel back up, in about 3 hours of navigation, the Chao Phraya river. The buffet lunch is served on board the boat, I also try this time to "dare" with some typical Thai dishes but.. what can I do if I hate onion and garlic!!!?? Instead Giusy, Gianluca and Marco (2 guys from Rome met today) find the lunch really good... (de gustibus non disputandum est!).

Bangkok seen from the boat is truly spectacular, along the riverbanks huts and shacks on stilts alternate with modern buildings, all of it, as always, in an obvious contradiction that distinguishes this enormous megalopolis.. In the evening we decide to go to the Lumphini area to visit the related market and to, finally, eat something more.. "familiar" (long live pizza!!).

floating market

Friday, August 12: floating market..But are we on vacation or not?? Ugh, today too the alarm rings early, at 7:00 AM we're already ready to be taken to the floating market. It's necessary to arrive early since at 11:00 AM the market closes. The bus leaves us in a square near the canal, from this moment on we'll continue with a motor launch, a sort of shuttle that will lead us through fetid canals, into the area where the market is held. As we get closer, countless boats of local vendors of fruit, vegetables and souvenirs crowd the canals and then.. then there's us the "tourists", everything and everyone crammed inside these small boats. Once we reach the terminus we visit the market from dry land, you just have to observe these people for 5 min. to understand how much energy, patience and how simply they live; I wonder what they must think of us....

The excursion continues to the "Rose Garden", a reconstruction of a Thai village, where lunch will be served to us and where we'll attend a folk show and an elephant show. Poor beasts forced to "dance", roll over and do lots of cutesy tricks in order to entertain the audience. The funniest part of the show, though, was when, once the "circus" was over, an elephant thought it well to do its business in the middle of the ring. Full service: a cascade of acid and a ton of s... (and you have no idea how it stank!!!).

In the city there's a festive atmosphere, today is the queen's birthday; with much regret we have to decline her invitation, we prefer to go to dinner with Marco&Gianluca and then this is our last evening, we can't leave Bangkok without having made another trip to Patpong, where, surprise of surprises, I meet my cousin Gigi whom I hadn't seen for about 1 year. How small the world is!!!

13aug-21aug Koh Samui

Saturday, August 13-Sunday, August 21: Koh Samui Today we leave, I'm almost sorry to go, I'd like to stay a couple more days, but that's the catch of an organized trip. Oh well! Sooner or later I'll come back to Bangkok!! At 1:30 PM a Bangkok Airways flight takes us in a little more than 1 hour to Samui. We land on time and already we breathe a different air, cleaner and decidedly more "exotic." The airport is built of wood with a thatched roof, a sort of big gazebo with no "enclosed" areas. Luggage loading-unloading, check-in, waiting room.. all in the same environment, immersed in the beautiful greenery that surrounds the airport. It feels like being a character in the TV show "Fantasy Island", only the man in the white suit and the dwarf waiting for us at the exit are missing. Once we've collected our luggage we have ourselves taken to the "Seascape Beach Resort" in Chaweng.

( Once at the hotel here's the first hitch, they ask us to sleep for one night in a bungalow since the "oceanview" room we had booked from Italy will be available from the following day. We accept despite the nuisance of having to open&close our suitcases again. If only we hadn't!!! To start with the door has no lock, but the room, worse still, is filthy!!! We can adapt to anything but not to poor hygiene! We call the young lady at the reception who suddenly no longer understands a single word of our English. She doesn't know that in front of her there are 2 hard heads, or rather, as we say in Naples "due cap tost". The fight is tough, but in the end she gives in and almost by "magic" a room in the hotel opens up.

Finally we can unpack and organize our afternoon! We immediately go in search of a scooter, (7 days for 1400 baht); Quickly we go back to the hotel because we really want to take a swim, but.. a sudden downpour catches us by surprise. We're on vacation, far from work and problems, surely a little rain won't wipe the smile off our faces, right? Rain or no rain we begin our first day at the beach and while the other guests move away from the beach we, in defiance of everything, dive into this very warm sea with the softest sand. Evening falls and my first thought is to find a good restaurant where I can finally eat something I like. We decide to have dinner in an "Italian-Thai" restaurant, the Chilly, where some guys from Turin suggest we try the "padthai".

Mmh; The next day I try the noodles instead but no luck, I just don't like this Thai cuisine!! Garlic and onion, sweet-and-sour little sauces in everything, even in the air, I swear! I think I'll give in to the countless Italian restaurants in Chaweng, but here comes the miracle, I finally discover a "decent" dish that will become MY DISH. From today on the password will be: "Thai fried rice, no onion, no garlic, please!"; Via Vai, Mamma Roma are some of the restaurants where we always ate well; clearly "thai fried rice" to play it safe, but also sea food: prawns, lobsters, shark (practically a swordfish just less flavorful..). As for the nightlife, Chaweng is full of it! The most popular are the "Green Mango", the "Solo" and others still, all located on a street that opens onto the main road. (So much so that we had almost not noticed them).

A corner full of venues, lights and music blasting at full volume, we jokingly nicknamed it "Sodom&Gomorrah's street" even though in reality some situations didn't make us laugh at all, quite the opposite! Men of every age in such vulgar, offensive if not downright sexually perverted attitudes toward these women (and who knows how many little girls) that left us disgusted; It's sad to admit it, but after a few days you get used to it... Our evenings pass, thus, between "sodom&gomorrah's street" and the Raggie pub, a disco near the lake where every evening a local band plays that really plays and sings well, then, around one o'clock "DJ Gigi" from Bari starts the music... A really strange guy who thinks he's very Bono Vox...

During the day, instead, we dedicate ourselves to tanning and, on rainy days, to discovering the island (the complete tour takes about 1h) among waterfalls, untouched beaches, rocks in the strangest shapes (with the famous "grandmother&grandfather rock") and the big Buddha: an imposing statue located near the airport that anyone taking off or landing can't help but notice. Personally it's one of the sacred places I liked most. Few tourists, lots of silence but above all a breathtaking view. Ah, a monk of his own accord blessed us and tied an orange bracelet around our wrist with 3 knots. I don't know the meaning of this gesture, but I like to believe that the monk wanted to intercede for us...

13-aug/21-aug

Together with Marco and Gianluca, who joined us in Koh Samui a few days later, we book the excursion to the island of Koh Tao. Truly beautiful, not to be missed! A catamaran also takes us to a small islet created by the tide; A strip of sand that when the tide is low joins the 2 parts of land bringing to the surface the countless corals, shells and sponges that this wonderful sea hides. Samui is also famous for the "fool moon party", the full moon party held on Hat Rin beach in Koh Pha-Ngan. We're really lucky because on Saturday the 20th (the day before our departure) there's the full moon. Wow They tell us that this party is a real "rave party". We couldn't end the vacation in a better way. Together with Andrea and Riccardo, 2 Neapolitan guys also guests at the Seascape, we buy the party ticket at one of the many travel agencies in Chaweng.

A pick-up from the hotel will take us to the port of Bo-puth where a boat will take us to Koh Pha-Ngan; Fortune willed that Xuan, Andrea's Thai friend, came with us because from the moment the pick-up collected us our adventure began. 1)The pick-up can hold max 10 people, we were about double that 2)The port they take us to is not the one our boat departs from and in 5 min. ours will leave! 3)Two scooters come to pick us up, after about 20 min. but only thanks to Xuan's intervention who calls the agency otherwise our party would have ended there.

4)We arrive at the port of Koh Pha-Ngan on a wreck because our boat had already left, but the surprises clearly don't end here! Ladies and gentlemen here for you "GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS" There's no place to dock at the pier, we'll have to reach it by going from boat to boat; Imagine a band of drunk people who have to attempt balance tests, some boats are even half a meter apart from each other. I don't know how but we reach the destination. Victory! "...Is the party here??!!" Yes, definitely! The music is deafening, people are wasted and we let ourselves go too. We try not to lose each other with the guys but in the end it was inevitable.. The only thing we remember well is that we did everything to avoid tripping over those who, drunk or otherwise, had fallen asleep on the beach. Exhausted, me, Giusy, Riccardo, Andrea and Xuan go back to the hotel.

We have time to rest only a few hours, dive one last time into this emerald green sea and then reluctantly say goodbye to Thailand. Unfortunately our vacation is over and the return journey will be really long..

Exactly 2 months have passed since I left, I already feel the need to set off again.. proxima parada COLOMBIAAAA(I just have to convince my friends), do you have any suggestions???

Ilenia