A Few Tranquil Days in Bangkok

There's an upside to being a tourist in a country with civil unrest. And that is empty hotels with cheap upgrades. $50 extra put us in 650 sq ft, on the 56th flr, with free breakfast, tea time and happy hour, and this balcony with this sunrise. 

Oh and these guys were two doors down.

Culture shock was also included in our stay. We had a tour on our first full day and our guide, Nang eased us into it. We drove straight out of the city to a salt farm where  the litter was sparse (for Bangkok) and I practiced timing my blinks. I'm still practicing.

Then we drove farther out to the floating market. 

We had a good old time at the floating market. We paddled around, saw coconut sugar being made, drank coconut, ate all types of local fruit, and Ali bought a Hanoi rice hat (think Rambo II... not Thai at all). Mickey Mouse would fit in great at the floating market, but it's not the most authentic local experience. Then we went to the Train Market and saw a rat big enough to eat Mickey's babies. Oh and we saw Porky.

This was one of the more appetizing meats for sale. I'll stick with the vegetarian options thank you.

Overall, I loved the train market. Ali wanted to barf a couple times. We're both glad we visited it. There were only two Gringos there and one of them may have also been a Vietnamese rice farmer.

Above was taken right after a train had passed through. The train passes over the goods on the ground and canapies are pulled back, moments before and after it looked more like this, though this is at the far end. It is much more cluttered looking the other way.

Then we saw the King's beautiful grand palace and took a bazillion photos. 

Thai people like their gold.

The demons in the picture below are actually guardians that face towards whatever it is they are protecting. Thai Buddhism uses many Hindi myths in there religion. In these myths the demons were bad but after they heard about Buddha they said "Buddha, broster, I'm with ya dude." So they show that people can change and we must guard against ourselves. 

We hopped on the Buddha bandwagon and made a wish and stuck a piece of gold leaf to Buddha.

We saw gold leaf stuck to all types of things. Even the inside of tuk tuks like this one.

We also got around on the sky train, which is exactly what it sounds like, a subway above street level.

We only saw protesters a few times. We walked across a bridge over this camp outside a mall near the National Stadium.

We checked out another mall, Terminal 21 for a little taste of the states.

And a real taste of the states.

And you gotta stop to smell the lotus flowers.

I think Ali looks pretty in that picture. Ali told me she thought I looked my best in this picture.