Feasting out the final few days

The second day of my Uttaradit trip involved an awesome som tam feast with my top Uttaradit students. I also managed to meet a couple of the farang volunteers, some of the Thai teachers and plenty of students. Later in the afternoon we went to the best Pad Thai restaurant in Uttaradit. This continued my feeling that Uttaradit is the best place to eat in Thailand. I'm not sure why it is so good, maybe it is cause I am nearing the end of my trip and I am savouring every mouthful of food before I leave.

I eventually returned to Bangkok late on Friday night, leaving me a few days to meet a few people. Yesterday I went to a vegetarian restaurant which was really good — it is called Koko and is near Siam Centre Point for those that are interested. I had never noticed it before because the sign is written in Thai, but it is definitely worth checking out.

As I finished doing a bit of shopping (actually quite a lot of shopping for a British guy), I exited the large shopping centre and found that the whole street had stopped. I was a bit confused as to what was going on. I was up high on an overpass, and I could see that the road had been cleared and all the traffic stopped in all other directions. The crowds were not moving either, no one was allowed near the road or over it. I looked down the road and it was like this for as far as I could see in both directions. My friend wasn't reacting to this at all. She just calmly told me that it was the Crown Princess going somewhere. Sure enough, a few minutes later there were a string of Mercedes streaming past, one of which was carrying the Crown Princess. I was trying to imagine the logistics of this everytime the royal family wanted to go anywhere. I guess it is not that easy for them to just pop down to Seven Eleven to buy an iced tea! I thought it was quite a special moment witnessing this event. It shows the care and attention that everyone has for the royal family, and the diligence of those planning such events.

Another special thing that happened yesterday was that it rained — just for about 10 minutes. It also rained this morning for a little longer and it actually felt refreshingly cool walking around this morning — until about 10am by which time it was pretty hot again. Today I visited the Isaan girls and had dinner at a great Isaan restaurant at Lad Kra Bang. I am trying to eat som tam everyday at the moment — it is so good. Returning to the city I then had Japanese food for dinner. Tomorrow is the last full day I have so I am going to eat like crazy! I have bought so many sweets and snacks to bring back to England, I am going to have to sort out my case soon and maybe throw out my gay t-shirts to make some room.