Ella's Photos

 

One of the things I did to prepare for this trip was buy a second camera body and lens. I already had a top-notch zoom lens to cover a variety of conditions but I wanted a faster lens for low light photos that was also more compact to better match our old E-PM2. I fortunately came across someone selling a package deal of an Olympus 17mm f1.8 lens and the camera body i wanted.

 

The lens and our old body make a powerful combination in a package the size of a point and shoot camera. With its fast autofocus and touchscreen it makes the perfect setup for street photography. I have learned that having a small, unthreatening camera is a great way to capture candid photos without making people uncomfortable. But if you want to take being stealthy to whole other level - give the camera to your 14 year-old daughter. This has become Ella's setup by default and I have been so impressed with the pictures she is taking. This 35mm equivalent focal range works well for her style of shooting and she captures a lot of things that I don't even notice. Most of the photos in today's post were taken by her.

 

We stopped by 7-11 before going to bed last night and I picked up some things for this morning's breakfast - a loaf of bread, a jar of jam, and a bottle of Ovaltine chocolate drink. It is way too early in our trip to already be eating Western food but I thought it might be a treat, and anyways it was my turn to cook.

We didnt have to check out until noon but I had suggested that we take the Chao Prayah river taxi to the train station and that we stop at a few of the different piers along the way.

We gathered our belongings and walked to our own pier, N10, where we stumbled onto a rotie cart. We must have walked right past it on the previous two days we were looking for one. Roties in Thailand are a street food dessert that is made by cooks of Indian descent that fiercely guard the recipe to their yellow dough. The ball of dough is flipped and stretched until it is thin as a crepe and then fried and folded into a square. It is coated with sugar and condensed milk and then rolled up in a paper wrapper. It is one of the best desserts I have ever had, and paying only $0.40 for something like that is... Amazing!

 

We started our trip by catching the same boat that we used to cross the river when we visited the Grand Palace. Next we transfered to an "orange flag" boat which packed us in like cattle. It was hot and there was no room to move, but it was also a lot of fun because of the sense of urgency to jump on and off the boat quickly before it pulled away from the dock. It was also neat to see how the person loading passengers used a series of different whistles to direct the captain to the correct spot on the pier.

 

We took the boat past one stop and then disembarked at N8 which was the stop for Wat Arun or the Temple of the Dawn. The kids were giving me a hard time for not taking them to this temple last night as it is supposed to be most impressive when it is lit up. It turns out that they are doing some restoration and the entire chedi was covered with scaffolding. It also turns out that the narrow stairs that go halfway up were also closed so we were only able to get a little scared of heights. Had I known about the work being done, I probably would have skipped it this stop, but it is a really good thing that we didn't. As we were taking a break in the shade, we started talking to an American tourist. I found out the he was here with two of his sons and a daughter in law and his grandkids. We learned that he was a member of the Church and that his daughter in law was personal friends with three different missionaries that I had served with in Thailand 18 years ago! What are the chances of something like that?

 

Once we were all accounted for on the next boat, my plan was to skip one stop and then get off at N6 which was supposed to be near Bangkok's largest fruit and flower market. The Little India district was also supposed to be nearby and my real reason for stopping was to see if I could find a donair anywhere. After stopping at 7-11 for more water, I asked for directions to either of our destinations and was told that both were much too far away to walk to. I started to worry that this stop was a waste of time and that we would need to jump on the next boat, but luckily I figured out that we were actually at the N5 stop, Chinatown and our final destination - Hua Lamphong train station.

I dont know how we missed the previous stop, but we were now ahead of schedule by six hours. The walk through Chinatown took one hour and then we had lunch at a restaurant across the street from the train station. The food was the best we have had so far and the people were so nice. At one point Tyson picked up a discarded bottle cap off the floor (he treats them like they're money) and the shop owner saw it and emptied all of the bottle caps from the door of the freezer just for him.

We found a table on the train station mezzanine and played Dutch Blitz for a few hours and then decided it was time to go for a little stroll. We got another bottle of water from 7-11 and then went down a street that was relatively quiet compared to the ones we had been on. We spotted a place advertizing Thai massage and I thought it would be a great way to pass the time. There were only two ladies working so they invited us boys to make ourselves comfortable while Heather and Ella each got a one hour massage that cost $8 Canadian each.

It was so nice to take a break in the air conditioned shop and the boys all fell into a deep sleep. Deacon was the first one to nod off and when the shop owner saw it, she paused Ella's massage and got a little square pillow that she gently placed under Deacon's head. Deacon has had that effect on people wherever we go; people on the street point to him as we pass and call him cute/lovable, and some ladies just come up and touch him.

 

Once the massage was over, we had a hard time waking the boys from their nap, and an even harder time convincing the ladies to accept a tip for allowing us all to have a break and for being so kind to our family. It felt like we were saying goodbye to old friends when we left, and Heather is already wondering if we can go back there when we are in Bangkok again at the end of our trip. We stopped at 7-11 and got another two litres of water and then waited the last couple hours in the train station, where the family all fell asleep again. An hour before our train departed, a courier arrived with the tickets I had reserved on the Internet one month previous. I met him at the designated spot and we exchanged an envelope and some money just like a drug deal, a drug deal where the participants wai each other at its conclusion.

We woke the kids one last time and took our backpacks to our train waiting on platform number 10. For this trip, I got tickets for a sleeper car cooled by fans rather than the airconditioned cars I had always travelled by on my mission. This way was cheaper and possibly even more comfortable as the airconditioned cars can get too cold. Our seats were already converted to three top bunks and three lower bunks but we moved things around because the the bottom bunks are more spacious and have a window that can be opened. Ella got her own, Heather and Deacon shared one, and Mason and Tyson shared the other one. I took one of the top bunks and our other two remained empty. I always found that the swaying motion of a sleeper car provided the best nights sleep you could ever get. I had just enough time to type some thoughts on the previous day before I confirmed myself that it was still true.

 

- C (and photos by E)