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For mom's last country we are stopping in Bangkok! She leaves on Thursday and we want to make the most of of her time. We are staying in a crazy cool hotel called the Shanghai mansion Boutique Hotel. Voted top hotel for service in 2010 and you can tell! Unbelievable decor, great breakfasts- western, Asian breakfast delicacies (SOOOO tasty!!) and muesili etc...it's in Chinatown so we were in the thick of things. Non stop action all around us!
We went down the street to explore and found a wild street corner restaurant thing covered in tarps- it was raining. Lots of tourists and Chinese were there so we thought it must be good. Fresh giant grilled prawns, heavenly tempura fried shrimp and Tom yum soup - and of course Terry' s obligatory calamari!! All for 28.00-with two beer of course for mom and Terry! At 9:00 pm the streets were jumping! Food stalls on the sidewalks and right on the main streets. People everywhere. The smells of smoke, food grilling, durian stink, some garbage and the sound of laughing and people talking and talking filled the air! We stopped and sampled tiny doughnut things covered in chocolate and green coconut sauce prepared on a outdoor burner- delicious!
We cuddled into our lovely beds and had a great sleep. The next day we hired a terrific guide, tami, from Tong Tours and we went to the Train market. This is I'm national geographic because it is the only market set up right smack alongside the train tracks (because the land is free). The drawback of course, is that when the train comes you have to pull all your wares back 6 feet so as not to get hit by the train!
Amazing to see how they have got this all rigged up. Their tables are on rollers! They quickly pickup anything on the ground, pull it back and it they are lucky and have a table cart thing, they roll it back! It is all done in a matter of seconds and in complete unison with great nonchalance. Very cool. Plusnit was clean and everything looked great. Our guide bought us all kinds of treats. I think she couldn't believe how we liked food so much! Loved feeding us!
Then we continued on to the floating market. It was as we have seen in magazines - wild, colorful, and full of crazy sights. Again, our guide made it easy - we asked to her not bring us to sellers , we just wanted to experience the market. she made it just right. When we got caught up in the crazy traffic jam, she just asked our boat driver ( a lady!) to back out and take us down the quiet canals where people live and grow beautiful plantations. What a change in pace!
We went to buy Colette a mango wood bowl and Terry wanted pad Thai. She also bought us some of the most delicious coconut cream crepes from a lady cooking them in her boat. Mom LOVED them!
The whole morning was great! Tami gave us ideas on what to do for the rest of the day. Even detailed instructions on how to walk to the pier, take an express boat downtown, and then take the sky train to Siam Centre where Shaun and Missie told us to try Shabu shi - all You can eat sushi at the Siam Paragon Center!
Then she dropped us off at James Tailors so Terry could order two suits.
We Got back to the hotel at 3:30, rested for a bit and walked 100 meters to the world's largest pure gold Buddha. Wat Trimit . 700 kg of solid gold. Amazing! We made it with 20 minutes before closing- and we zoomed up 80 steps ( seriously, steps no longer bother mom and I !) and couldn't believe our eyes.
We then attempted Tami's directions to downtown and we are proud to say we did them all and got there and actually found the restaurant (that was the hardest part - it is one GIANTIC mall!). Great food, mom likes sushi too so all was good! The sky tram was quite the experience (66 steps!) mom couldnt believe - 1. it was really air conditioned and 2. How crazy crowded it got! It was an adventure just buying the tickets! People are very helpful everywhere though, so we made it!
Tired and full, and enough traveling on our own, we took a taxi home. Up early tomorrow (4:30am) as mom flies home at 8:30 am....:(
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