Commze

We didn’t get to see the inside of many hotels in Bangkok Thailand, and that was OK, as we had much to see in this busy, beautiful city. I wanted a massage, Lydia wanted to shop, and we both wanted to sample as much Thai food as we could handle! Fortunately, our issue with the airport took only minutes to resolve as we had heard horror stories about people stuck at the official’s tables, that all turned out to be nonsense, as we were just about whisked through.

We went out the Weekend Market early and watched many of them setting up and them felt the pulse of the city awaken! This place is crazy, so many mopeds, pedestrians, cabs for hire, bleating, honking and roaring by in occasional plumes of black smoke. We got a shrimp kabob for breakfast. We went over and watched some silk weaving and Lydia bought a bolt of red silk to take back. She promised to make something grand with it! I could have bought a new suit but I stopped wearing suits and opted instead for a gold vaguely religious figure to hang from my pick up rear view mirror at home. We were told not to eat from the carts that pass by but we did (like I said we eat a lot!) and had some really hot and yummy pad thai that tied us over (no pun intended) for a while! I was a beautiful dish, full of little bitty shrimps  and tasting of fish sauce and garlic and lime. then we stumbled on a Buddha stature that soared into the morning sun, golden and shiny as his expression. We thought about taking a motor cycle taxi but we had no helmets and opted to walk about instead.

Considered the dining capital of Australia, Melbourne boasts every kind of cuisine imagineable. When we left Hotel Melbourne Australia we decided it was no time to diet. Oddly, we immediately went for fast food at Hungry Jack’s, the McDonald’s (or should we say Burger King) of Australia. They have the old regulars, the hamburgers, the french fries. Happily, the one we went to had vegetarian burgers, and bottled water so we could skip the soft drinks. The burger was quite good, try getting that back in the states. Fast food fix satisfied, we just needed some familiar chow, plus it was cheap and fast.

After that, some caffeine was in order, and a stroll down Degraves Street led us to, well, Degraves Espresso. We were too fast-fooded out to try the panninis, the free range eggs and chorizo, the foccacias, the place smelling strongly of ground coffee, everyone nice and friendly. We “settled” for velvety cappuccinos (even though it was mid-day) and were content to watch business men zip by, the tourists ambling about as we sat under our umbrella at this funky fun place.

We stumbled into Flagstaff Gardens and watched some lawn bowling at this leafy oasis and headed over to the Shanghai Noodle House on Tattersalls Lane. We waited for a table in this bustling enjoyable place, menus in Chinese but a few English menus circulate. As we waited briefly for a table a fellow waiting with us suggested we try the dumplings. They were really good. Who doesn’t love a good dumpling? Served in soup with shreds of pork and vegetables, seasoned with cilantro and a little seaweed, the dumplings were heaven in a bowl. It was cheap, and we were OK getting our own table ware, tea and water.