Since the names of everything are so foreign and hard to pronounce, we came up with nicknames to help. Example: Wong Wei = wrong way, Thong Lo = thong low (as in undies) and Mo Chit = no shit. Wong Wei truly earned it's name when Elsi started going down the wrong escalator at the Wong Wei transit station. When she heard us shout , she quickly turned around and ran back up. She looked like she was dong the Michael Jackson moon walk!
This city maximizes the use of boats--all sizes and shapes. So we hopped on a long boat with it's huge motor propped on the back and sped off. Bangkok is called the Asian Venice as there are lots of small canals going off the main muddy river and both the river and canals have homes and business built on pilings right over the water. Some of the homes & businesses have been there for years and are partially leaning or underwater and others are new and gorgeous. We saw kids swimming & fishing, floating markets selling trinkets, drinks & ice cream, barges pulled by tug boats and a variety of different party boats including some that looked like Noah's ark. We stopped at a large floating market where they were selling lots of unidentifiable food that filled the air with pungent odors. One boat was selling small turtles & eels which we were encouraged to buy and then set free so that they might live. Now there's a brilliant way to make money--catch the turtles & eels, sell them so people feel good about setting them free & then catch them again!!
Bangkok is famous for the Golden Palace and the humongous leaning Buddha so we made sure we took in both. We were not the only ones--actually of the 10 million who live here, I think about 1/10 also came to put roses, lotus flowers, candles or burn incense in order to honor Buddha. Add the many tourist and cram all of us shoeless through one five foot door--sardines in can might understand. But it was worth it--what splendor. Gold, mirrors, jewel and ceramic tiles created many huge, magnificent and ornate buildings and statues. It took ten minutes just to walk by the leaning Buddha. After a quick rest back at our hotel, we took off looking for the Puppet Theater only to find it closed. We did get to watch a short clip & see a couple puppets though. We ate dinner in an authentic Thai restaurant that was filled with locals. We'll see how we feel tomorrow. We did top it off with some KFC ice cream so that should help. We were glad we'd mastered the Sky Train routine that whisked us back to our hotel.
We saw this saying on a sign today and thought it should be our motto for this trip: Enlarge your visions and be fascinated by the people surrounding you. Tomorrow we leave for Phuget...
