December 18, 2006
Rest day in Bangkok: trip to the Chinese Embassy
We are up at 6 to get an early start on the rush hour. We catch the 134 bus to the Sky Train subway interchange Mo Chit. This time we take the subway to the stop closest to the Chinese embassy. It seemed so easy today.
We find we are half hour early, so we walk to the nearby shopping center for coffee and pastries. We weren't sure about the building when the Chinese embassy guard pointed us to the sidewalk side for the visa. The first floor was vacant, we walk around to the side, see a skybridge from the embassy to the 2nd floor and figure we found it.
There is a line forming, some people have forms, we ask someone, and we are directed to a man with a brown satchel. He gives us the forms we need; Americans need 2 forms. Another man points to around the corner and we see a nice place to sit, fill out the forms, then go back to the line.
At 9 the door opens; we go to the 2nd floor and there is a "take a number" machine. We get numbers 8 and 9 for visa's and in under 10mins number 8 appears on the board. We first step up to the window together, then Patrick goes to the next window with #9 so not to mess up the system. We are given a receipt and told we could pick up the visas and passports tomorrow.
We are done and out the door by 0915.
There was a sporting goods shop we were interested in seeing in the Shopping Center. We waited for the store to open at 0930, but then it didn't open until 1000. The prices on some goods were USA prices.
We catch the subway back to Mo Chit, take the sky train to Siam, have a smoked ham croissant sandwich for lunch, shop a little, then make our way back to the apartment to work on the bikes. Patrick puts on the new wider tires, Rachel cleans the chains.
In the evening, we walk back to yet another shopping center, the one we had dinner with Krasin last night at the food court. Tonight though we eat at an "All you can eat" sushi buffet restaurant. We sit at the table and the buffet comes to you. In the center of the table is a hot plate and big bowl, the waitress pours in a bouillon soup and soon it is boiling.
On a narrow conveyor belt, there are small plates with different items, marching around the tables single file. We finally understand the idea is to take the uncooked items and place in the hot soup to cook the items. We opted mostly for clams, shrimp and pork. On some dishes there were sushi items, thin slices of raw salmon, or shrimp or crab on rice roll, the meat secured on the rice by a seaweed strip. We were also served two sauces, one hot green mixed (wasabi?) with soy sauce and a chili red sauce.
It was almost embarrassing as the small plates were stacking up high and higher, but then the waitress was pretty good at clearing them away quickly. All this for 200baht per person.
We walked back to the apt picking our way through traffic, parked cars, sometimes a curb, sometimes part sidewalk...all sorts of hazards. We become nostalgic of a sidewalk where one didn't have to watch so intently on where you are walking.
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