Pahurat, Chinatown and the Chao Phraya

The Chao Phraya runs through Bangkok like a giant ribbon of not quite set jello.  We stepped onto a yellow flagged river express to get to Chinatown and the water bubbles and burps and laps in big sloppy waves all over the place.  The determined river ferries are like those flat water bugs that sort of sit on top of the water, moving back and forth and side to side with amazing speed.  They shoot up and down the river and dart from one side to the other rapidly taking on and discharging passengers, at this time of day, just before noon, lots of white farangs taking in the sites...Wat Po, The Royal Palace, and Chinatown.  Our mission was Pahurat, on the edge of Chinatown.  It is the Indian district complete with spiffy new Sikh temple and the India Emporium which contains "everything Indian" in air-conditioned luxury.  This is the cloth section of Bangkok and the wonders of Sanphan Lane...with various spellings.

Unfortunately the Express boat didn't stop at the Memorial Bridge pier and let us off at the official pier for Chinatown, whose name escapes me right at the moment.  It is quite a hike in the heat, confusion and uncertain street names from the pier to Pahurat, so we hired a convenient tuk tuk for a paltry fee and were dropped off right across the street from the India Emporium.  Hurrah!  We headed down the block for the walkover bridge and I was silently thanking god not to have to play dodgem' cars to get to the other side.  I had a Chinese frog button in my pocket, determined to find the Frog Mecca I remembered from lo those 20+ years ago.  After showing the frog to several stores full of Thai formal wear and dance accessories, they all seemed to be mumbling something that sounded vaguely familiar...samphaeng lane?  And they pointed in the direction of a vast covered alley between two tall buildings...yes, it was familiar.  We headed in, and I mean headed in, for it is an interminable warren of haphazardly covered stalls down an alley full of Valentine's merchandise, fabric, toys, more alleys leading off in spokes of stalls and I kept showing my frog and they kept pointing me further on  and we kept walking and it was hot and every once in a while we stood in front of a fan or a store would be air-conditioned and then vendors started setting up for lunch...mee krob with red bows, cherries from the US, strawberries in little cones and finally...a store so full of "notions" that I thought my eyes would explode.  A young woman led me to a center post around which were drawers and drawers of frogs every size, shape and most colors!  And trim!  Trim!  Trim!  Woo hooooooo!!!!  We even found a bank, icily air conditioned, and cashed the last of our money.  Only two days to go and we are counting down.

Leaving Samphaeng Lane, we headed to the India Emporium where we had an unusual dim sum lunch and numerous glasses of iced weak tea, perfect for the heat...then grabbed the nearest tuk tuk back to the pier.  it was while sitting in the tuk tuk trying not to inhale the exhaust of the delivery truck in front of us and listening to Rod Stewart in concert on the blown tuk tuk speakers that I happened to glance over at the side walk, noting the shiny new kanom krok pan in front of a shop that was selling waffle irons and other industrial cookware and .... THERE IT WAS!  THE FISH PAN!  Now, it's not EXACTLY the fish pan I was looking for, but....IT WILL DO!  So, now we have to figure out a way to get this fish pan back to the US....and tomorrow is our last day here...