The good, the bad and the ugly

Day 2 - I woke up at 6.00am (I was jetlagged, ok?); ate an incredibly huge breakfast (some miscommunication resulting from the fact I speak no Thai, and the waitress spoke very little English) and headed out, via a river ferry to Wat Pho. Wat Pho was fantastic - the compound had a school where little kids were studying, there was the famous reclining Buddha, it was relatively uncrowded and tourist-free. I wandered around for a couple hours, mildly lost and taking it all in.





June 17th: Wat Pho - Thailand's largest reclining Buddha, and me. I look really happy because I've avoided the busloads of tourists by getting up at 6.00am. (Jetlag.)

After that, I was templed-out, and I decided to head to Chinatown to see the sights (and shop a little). Caught the ferry there with relative ease (considering I speak absolutely no Thai), but there, I got so, so, so very lost. Winding alleys filled with stores - and I had absolutely no idea where I was. I had vague hopes of heading to the flower market, but I never did get there. So, after about 3 hours of walking around lost, having no clue where I was, I was in need of a drink. Ducked into a hotel, opened my Rough Guide map, and tried to figure out where I was.

Restored by a drink, I was ready to head out. I was vaguely looking for shoe stalls in Chinatown, and then, I turned left into an alley, and there they were! Shoes, as far as the eye could see.

And this is where the truly tragic sets in. (Lauren, if you are reading this, you'll appreciate the pathos in this story.) Shoes, shoes, and none I could buy, they were all for the wholesale trade. The guy at the first stall said I needed to buy 6 pairs. So, I thought, hey, I can manage that. Ah, but they were 6 pairs of the same style.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I think I did both. Then I continued walking for another 2 hours, trying to find retail shoes. I did find some, but like the famous saying goes, the shoes I could find were not the ones I wanted to buy.

Today, by necessity will be a low effort day - the excess of yesterday did me in.

So, Bangkok has its surreal moments. My first one happened the first evening I got here, when I went to a restaurant and ordered steamed rice with my curry. This is what I got.


You want me to eat what?



Fine then. I will.

The next strange and funny thing was this headline in the Bangkok post.

Lanna wedding planned for giant pandas

Of course, I bought the paper. The following is excerpted from the article.

The male, Xuang Xuang, had been ready to mate since last year when he became very active, ran around like a horse, rubbed his genitals on the ground and squeaked like a goat. But Lin Hui only closed her eyes and ears and seemed angry when touched by the male.

I wonder why? These female pandas are so demanding. Reading on, I found this:

Mr. Sophon said some people had suggested that x-rated movies be played for the two pandas to see, but that was only an opinion. He had screened movies for animals before. Some of them appeared to enjoy cowboy films, but he had never tried showing them pornography.

I love Bangkok. This story made my day.

A couple albums to share. Hopefully, this works.
http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=933171119074058797/l=51214268/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB