mitchjet: one night in bangkok

(well, actually it was two nights, but that's not how the song goes...)

it had been three years since i'd been to bangkok, and i was so incredibly pumped to be going back there, and even more excited by the fact that i was passing through bangkok on my way to SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA!!!

bangkok was just as amazing as i remember it -- loud and crazy and fun fun fun!!!

though i'm a little concerned by my new-found fascination with street food -- it seems all someone has to do is make sure their food comes served from a cart with four wheels, and i'm sold! maybe it's the sense of danger that excites me, but i think these little self-contained mobile kitchens are just sheer genius! if the vendors have no guests at their "restaurant", they just pack up and move to a busier location!

my adventures in bangkok:
feed an elephant on the main street of bangkok (and ask the trainer to have the elephant lift me up with his trunk and place me on his back so i can ride it -- but apparently that only happens in Disney movies and not in real-life) . eat Pad Thai, in Thailand! . visit the night markets and ensure that one's bargaining skills are still sharp as a tack, and as a result end up with a wooden carving of a Hello Kitty cat...which clearly i needed desperately, ahem . play ping pong with an opponent who wasn't using a ping pong paddle to hit the balls at you . be presented with a gift of a written poster that says: "mitch, welcome to thailand" that the lady didn't write with her hand . now know exactly what constitutes a "super pussy" -- the girls are talented! respect! . challenge three old Thai men to a game of checkers on a street corner at 2am -- and be well and truly defeated because you forgot all that your dad ever taught you about checkers . consider getting some tourist information, but then decide against it cos you'd rather not wake the fellow sleeping in the front window . wake up at 6am, and jump on a tour bus to go to the Damnoensaduak Floating Market . take a thirty-minute boat ride down the narrow canals of bangkok, in boats featured in the James Bond movie "The Man With The Golden Gun" . purchase the obligatory fridge magnet for the collection . watch a lady weaving silk for twenty minutes because you got oddly hypnotised by the weaving machine -- i still have no idea how silk is made . pay a local boy AUD$0.60 to release one of his birds from it's cage -- it'll probably just fly back in a few minutes to earn the boy yet another sixty cents . buy some hot food from a little canoe without asking what it's called or what it's made from, and be pleasantly surprised to find that hours later you still haven't brought it back up . visit the Royal Thai Handicrafts Centre to watch people carving artworks out of trees -- wow i swear it was more interesting than i just made it sound -- guess you had to be there . fall asleep on the tour bus and end up at some temple -- i still have no idea about it's whereabouts in relation to where i was or where i was going . pray to yet another god -- (i've prayed so many different prayers to so many different gods around the world that it's a wonder they haven't all ganged up on me and struck me down!) . on a 2-kilometre scroll of fabric that temple visitors are encouraged to write their prayers and well-wishes on, scrawl the words "buddha rocks!" -- hmmm, in hindsight, is that a bit disrespectful? . bang what seems to be a thousand bells with a big wooden stick -- i have no idea what it's for, but i reckon the gods must have a hard time sleeping with all those donging bells all day! . eating some "sticky rice" served inside a rod of bamboo . consider a tattoo, because i mean, if angelina jolie can get a tattoo in thailand, so can i, right? . pride yourself on being an adventurous traveller, but still baulk at the idea of eating fried cockroaches and grasshoppers . leave your credit card in an ATM, but don't mind, cos you've left your credit card in an ATM in BANGKOK!!! (wait...hang on a second...)

here are the photos: