Wrapping it up in Bangkok

We came to find out that just about every form of transportation in Thailand is questionable. The water taxis (boats) don’t exactly stop when the pull up to the dock. You just have to jump on and off and hope you make it. We missed this small piece of information and missed our dock. We learned our lesson and were the first ones off at the next dock. We walked back to our original dock and took another ferry across the river to Wat Aran – yet another temple. Just as we were taking the smaller ferry across, after our 20 minute detour, it started to rain. Correction…it started to pour. To be honest it was a nice break from the heat. So we continued our sightseeing in the rain. We saw Wat Aran – an ancient temple decorated with broken pieces of Chinese porcelain. The temple reminded me partially of South American art – Mayan or something. Apparently it is beautiful at sunset with the reflection, but due to our ‘learning experiences’ with the ferry all chances of the temple at sunset were shot.

After the temple we decided, in order to avoid another HK experience, to follow the book’s suggestion for food choices. We went to Roti Mataba – a small hole-in-the-wall establishment just off the river. However, contrary to our experiences in HK, this place was amazing! And authentic! Roti is kind of like nan or flatbread. I know what you’re thinking and yes, imagine that…it was gluten free! (or so I would like to think so) For all three of us – eating an average of two meals each was a total of about $7. When we came out of the restaurant the rain had finally stopped and the sun was setting on the river with a huge double rainbow covering nearly the entire sky. There is natural beauty in Bangkok!

After we returned home I went straight to be…I literally crashed. I should have stayed up a bit longer because I woke up at about 4am for the day. Yale (who is on a normal sleeping schedule) and I spent the morning finalizing everything for our beach adventure ahead of us. We are renting a car that will be dropped off at our hotel tomorrow and making our way down the coast. We changed all of our hotel reservations and shuffled things around to see more of the sights while we are there. After making many phone calls to hotels and struggling to communicate with the large majority of people we spoke to, we finished and things should be in place for the next week or so. Stay tuned…

We made it out of the hotel by lunchtime and were off to the designer mall just down the road where we went for lunch. We spent our last day in Bangkok living the high life – bowling, IMAX movie, souvenir shopping, snacking at Dunkin Donuts, and roaming the plethora of air-conditioned malls Bangkok has to offer.

NBC = Need bowling classes…

1. contemplation - visualizing a strike

2. in the moment - I chose the run and chuck technique

3. didn't quite work out the way I planned...gutter ball

The outcome - didn't break 100...shockingly I think I am better at the Wii

We saw a 3-D IMAX show about an African safari. And yes, in case you were wondering my love for Africa is still strong. Once again we had to pay our respects to the King. Speaking of the King, apparently every Monday the King has asked the people to wear yellow shirts. As Yale and I walked out of our hotel this morning we thought it was just a big tour group…little did we know. Everyone was wearing yellow!!! When we asked someone at lunch, in her broken English told us how she loved the King. Imagine if Americans were united in liking something so much, other than Seinfeld or now The Office. We’re taking it easy tonight – probably going to McD’s for dinner…Buddha style.