Well we are off again, this time to
Bangkok is one of our favorite cities and has been on the return list for a year now and we are both very excited to be going back. The city is alive with the smells of enticing foods, the energy of frenetically paced lifestyle and the zen of the Buddhist religion. Oh yeah and your dollar goes a long ways, everything is up for negotiation from trinkets you buy from the vender's to a tuk tuk ride across town so put on your bartering cap and have a good time.

The tuk tuk, the only way to travel when in Bangkok. The three wheeled vehicle rules the road in this city. They whip around on a dime in traffic when they feel they can get somewhere a quicker way, sometimes two or three times. The engines are loud and the pollution is thick but there is no better way to see, feel and literally taste the city the in the back of a tuk tuk.
And the drivers are always entertaining.
Here we are riding in a long tail boat on a canal tour. The first stop on a day that was full of adventure. We were set out to visit the floating market
Not too far into the journey we encountered a rogue marketeer and of course we had to buy something. She had everything from back scratchers to chop sticks. And of course some beer. It was only 9.30 in the morning but I felt compelled to buy a beer. Wouldn't want to let her down, and she convinced me to buy one for the boat driver as well. They sure drive a hard bargain.
Looking at some of the houses along the river really made you wonder how they were still standing.
This is the floating market with all the food vendors.


They all served something different, from pad thai to crab noodle soup and they whip it up on their little boats.
I guess this is an inner city farm Thai style. Some cattle on the river, not something I was expecting.
I think this says it all, watch out for the hoaxer, and trust Mr Joe
Tuk Tuks, cabs, and motorcycles all stuck in traffic. Anyone need a balloon?
This was a yellow shirt rally, not really anyplace we wanted to be. It was interesting though, our driver, who happened to wearing a yellow shirt which we realized was significant after the fact, immediately put on the radio in his tuk tuk when we passed and started listening to the rally. It was little surreal.

Happy Barbara. Well she's smiling at least, in the face of adversity. We are on the river taxi on our way to Wat Arun and a torrential rain has started to fall. This after she specifically asked me if we needed to bring an umbrella. Of course I said no
That's the Wat we are headed to, You can see it through the monsoon
We made it
It was quite spectacular, one of the most interesting temples we have seen. The exterior is covered with tiles and they were all collected from merchant ships that had traveled to the region


And yes you could climb it and yes Barbara went all the way to the top. I love that she does this, considering she is absolutely terrified of heights.
We were waling by this and I convinced Barbara to let me take her picture. As soon as I snapped the shot a guy came out of nowhere and said it was 40 baht, well worth the 2 bucks I think.
This is the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, absolutely beautiful
and HUGE. Stunning

Wat Arun after the sunset, and the rain
Saturday night after zipping all over the city we needed a little R&R, and these two provided the entertainment. The fella with the long hair has become a fixture in the Khao San area over the last couple of years and the guy in the yellow shirt is well on his way to becoming a fixture himself. Interesting characters I must say.
And this guy was singing his heart out, it's too bad you couldn't understand anything he was singing.

Monks in training
The Sunday waiting for our daily dose of Tom Yam soup. Umm Umm good
In Thailand kids don't need fancy toys, all they need to keep them occupied is an empty coke bottle. This kid was flying that coke bottle all over the restaurant for an hour while we were there.
I don't know,maybe you can tell me what this is, a little bit of everything I think. My question was how did he see?

Flowers from a cart. Everything was on a cart.
Another tuk tuk ride on our way to Chatachuk weekend market. It seemed that no matter how far we went in one of these things we never paid more than 9 bucks sing, that's like 6 bucks Canadian.



The tuk tuk may rule the road but the quickest way around town in a bike.
Another traffic jam, good times
Chatachuk weekend market. Insane. It just kept going and going and going. You could buy anything in this place
And it was crammed with people
a tea cup mybe
or a table to feed your dog on.
Khao San road, the backpackers ghetto. It's funny really it's not just poor backpackers around here, it's families, backpackers, and upper crust people staying here now days. There are actually some real nice hotels around this area and something is always happening.
Appetizers before our traditional nice dinner we have on all our trips. Food on a stick, how can you go wrong.
And now for the nice dinner. Italian of course, our favorite fall back food. The antipasti platter was enough but we didn't stop there, we had a pizza and some raviolli. We were so full they practically had to wheel us out of the place.


Barbara on the way to the airport. Still smiling.
And the newest introduction to our Buddha family. It took forever to find one we were happy with but we did it. Didn't realized how friggin huge it was until we got it home.

Bye for now