Entertaining ourselves in Banglok - ice skating, ten pin bowling and the bus trip

The next day we wanted to go Ice Skating. So we went back to Fashion Island mall – we were sure that we saw a sign there for an ice rink. Turned out the ice rink was not there but at Central Plaza, so we decided that we will attempt Central Plaza the following weekend. Our Ice Skating expedition then turned into a Ten Pin bowling expedition. Cost was 190 baht for the session + 99 baht for shoe rental per person. Drinks are very expensive to buy at the Ten Pin bowling place itself - 90 baht for a bottle of Pepsi.

Ten Pin tip from Steven: the floor is very slippery!!! And over eagerness will most definitely change into a lot of entertainment for the people around you when your whole body (instead of the bowling ball) skids across the lane…

 

After our failed attempt to go ice skating we decided to go ice skating the next week. Saturday morning we got on a van and headed to Central plaza. Now this sounds very simple – but you see we had no idea which van to take or where to get off. So like any normal person we stopped each and every van, popped our heads inside and asked the driver (or anyone that can master some English) if the specific van is going to Central Plaza. We eventually got one going to Central Plaza (probably on attempt number 477). A good trick in Thailand is to always look for the person that looks as if they can speak English - and then NOT speak to that person, because it usually backfires. You rather just randomly ask out loud "please show me to get off when we have arrived at Central Plaza", and then some friendly person will poke you in the ribs and nod fervently that it is your stop.

We got to the mall and immediately went in search of the toilet, the signs they had up to indicate where the toilets are showed exactly how we felt at that moment:

 We found the ice rink after walking through the ginormous mall and then found that the ice were made out of solid gold - or at least at 650 baht for 30 minutes something had to be made of gold. We decided that we are not that desperate to make fools of ourselves in front of hundreds of Thai people and rather stood there watching the other people make very expensive fools of themselves. 

So this was failed attempt number two for ice skating (we did eventually get a very cheap, very cool ice rink - we will post about this a bit later) and headed to the bus-stop - it was time for home now. Again this sounds very simple, until you realize that you have no clue where you are and at which bus stop to wait. So we waited at the first bus stop that we saw as we exited the mall. And we waited... and waited... Eventually we did the "look for the person that looks as if they can speak English" and again it proved to be an epic fail. So with hand gestures that made us look like something between retarded and epileptic we eventually found out that we were waiting at the wrong bus stop and had to go to the one around the corner. Said bus stop (with random sleeping person - we would soon realize why...):


So there we waited AGAIN for bus number 113. After an hour we realized that bus 113 is not in the mood to pass this stop today. So we walked up further in the road to wait at another bus stop (yes it does sound stupid now - but then it made perfect sense to us). As you might have guessed the bus was still a no show.



So we asked the Thai people again how we get to Min Buri - they very happily told us to get on bus nr 558. So we waited and after about 30 minutes the long awaited bus nr 558 arrived. Overjoyed we skipped to the bus to get on our way home (we were TIRED). The bus lady walked to us and in one voice with massive smiles we went "Min Buri Khrap". Expressions of shock, horror and confusion immediately appeared on her face as she informed us that this bus is not going to Min Buri. As Steven and I was hurriedly ushered out of the bus we inquired which bus we should take then - and the bus driver said with a big smile we should take bus number 72.



We jumped off and waited yet again. We barely sat down when lady luck smiled on us and sent bus number 72. Again with joyful hearts we skipped onto the bus (WE ARE GOING HOME) whoooohooo. (Please note if you saw this on T.V. there would be a clock at the bottom of your screen saying "ELAPSED TIME 2 hours 27 minutes".) Yes indeed at this stage we have already waited more than 2 hours for the right bus. 
As soon as we jumped on the bus a monster  déjà vu hit us square between the eyes as we relived the shock, horror, confused expression and was told this was not the right bus. Apparently we had to take bus number 558. (Yes we know it is the same number as the first one.) To cut a VERY (4 hour) long story short - this happened about 6 times before we got someone to master enough English to tell us that we can take either the nr 558- or nr 72 bus. But what created the enormous amount of confusion was the fact that neither of these buses were going to Min Buri. In fact none of the buses on this route go to Min Buri. YES WE KNOW - Prooooooblem.  But this was not the end of the world. We had to get on either nr 558 or nr 72 and go to Rampaeng. There we would get off and then take bus 27 or 113.

And atlast - WE GOT HOME!!!

For some reason I now have an unexplainable fear to climb in random buses ...

Fashion island and SIAM city park - fun in Bangkok

The next morning we packed up our stuff to move into our new home. We got a lovely bachelor-type apartment at Min residence – only a few minutes away from SIAM’s office and right opposite Big C superstore (it took us 2 months to figure out that that is what the guy is saying on the radio add playing in-store – to us it sounded more like “Big C radio and Big C supesita”).

With our newly found riches (in terms of our Phuket salaries that paid in), Steven and I wanted to go see a movie. So off we went to Fashion Island shopping center. Some photos:

 Somewhere during our shopping Steven went to the toilet ... for half an hour.. And this was the reason for his absence: (yes it is true - you do get gadgets that spray you clean and then dry you with nice warm water - GOOOLLDDD!)

 The mall ended up being so big that it took Steven and I 4 hours to walk through the entire mall. So our window shopping (and my karaoke in the middle of one shop) left us completely exhausted and we returned home. We bought food and sweets and cigarettes and cold-drinks and food and sweets and food (the first time since we bought groceries in Hua Hin that we could actually afford it again).

With our fridge and cupboard filled we went to bed – very happy, very content and super excited for the next day. SIAM WATERPARK. Whooooooooooooooohooooooooooooooo.

SIAM city waterpark is the biggest amusement park in Thailand and it is also home of the biggest man-made ocean. (The ocean sounds awesome until you get old-people’s skin as you wait in the water FOREVER to catch a wave.) We gave up waiting for the wave and rather went to buy some food. Cheap and delicious.

And after that we probably made the biggest mistake in all-time amusement park history – yup we went on a turning-spinning-kotching thing… It looked like loads of fun at that stage – you see the-incredible-washing-machine-slash-tumble-dryer-wannabe-THING spins in circles and it has the awesome side trick where you can also spin the little compartment that you are sitting in. As you know the two of us by now you can just imagine the amount of spins we got out of “THE-MONSTER” even before we took off…

THE-MONSTER: (no not Steven - yes the thing behind Steven)

 Luckily the thing stopped just in time for me not to force feed Steven some of my lunch as I was hanging upside down above him.

We (Steven) decided that maybe some peddle boating will do us some good – and as you can imagine I am a huge fan of cycling on water while my head is spinning in a million directions and all of my neatly digested lunch is having a party in my throat.

I did however decide to amuse him so we peddled, and peddled, and peddled…how f@%^&^ing long can one peddle in 30 minutes!!!!!!!! Oh and we fed some fish – the fun part is to let you fingers hang in the water and let them nibble all the kotch from under your fingernails.

And so we rounded the day off with one more trip on the water log – now I was wet, drunk and TIRED!!! What a fun day.