more bangkok

hey everyone, thanks for the comments!

lets see.. where did i leave off? ok so we went to khao san road for dinner. it is so strange there. Busybusybusy but not with thai people with so many farangs (foreigners). you get asked a lot to eat somewhere, go somewhere, buy something. we walked up and down shaking our heads! there are lots of stalls with fake cds and t-shirts and jewellery, but as you walk down the road the same stalls seem to pop up again and again. james thinks that one person buys them all and just puts them 5 metres apart from each other, kind of like 7-11. which there are lots of here as well, it is even fun to look around 7-11 at all the strange asian things that are strange and asian.

anyway at khao san james bought a shirt and some cds, and i got a henna tattoo of a bird on my ankle. it was fun having it done by a really nice thai woman, she made me sit down and then pulled my leg onto her lap and worked away. then instructed me not to move for 30 minutes and to be very careful. james just wandered away for a while. we could've walked up and down all night, looking at the stalls, the backpackers who look like they've been here for years, the hippies, oh and the thai man dressed up as jack sparrow from pirates of the carribean. james liked him. but instead we sat down for dinner, quite nice and james loved the cheap beer. then we ambled home again.

this morning we didn't really have any plans, because even though the guidebook is full of things to do and see, we really want to relax a bit and not go to touristy things just because they are touristy things. so we had a leisurely breakfast and then james decided we should go on a train and boat. it just so happens that bangkok has both of these! how coincidental! we took a taxi to the skytrain terminal and then caught the very modern and clean skytrain to the boat terminal. the skytrain gave good views but it was only a short trip. we saw a park that we want to visit which as a ferris wheel in it. woo!

the boat terminal turned out to be a great idea because they have a ticket for 100 baht (about 3 bucks) which gives you unlimited stops up and down the river all day. yes! taking the boat was great, really fun and relaxing. we took the boat to chinatown and got caught up in a very cramped very busy market. everyone pushing through. bought some pink rope to tie to my bag to distinguish it from james'. then we went back to the boat and caught it to wat arun, but forgot that because it's a temple we need long pants so we will go there another day. took the boat back to khao san. we had some lunch and then decided to take a tuktuk home. we were wary of doing this at all the whole time we are here because there are so many stories about dodgy tuktuk drivers and there isn't a meter so.. but we decided we had to experience it once, and the drive from khao san is short. after arguing with one dodgy driver who wanted to take us to some tailors first (we dropped him), we found a nice guy to take us home. it was fun, i wish that the drivers werent dodgy and it was cheaper.

when we got back here we've just sat around playing jenga and cards and james went to get the bangkok post. played more cards and then here i am. james wants to go get dinner somewhere tonight and then tomorrow we might go to that park and then to a night market tomorrow night.

xo
mad