Probably not, right?

K

Holy Crap! I just (tried to!) read my blog! I think I should've brought my laptop because this iPad entry stuff is failing to impress. Double posts, bad order whew!   How are you guys dealing with it? 
I guess my attempt to apply an editing format to my entries is backfiring.  For this moment I'm 
writing directly onto the blog, so back to no editing. Let's see if this works. 

So first of all thanks for your comments. I absolutely want to include some of the pics and videos I'm
taking but have yet to figure that out on this travel gear I'm using.  I'll get it though.  Just may take a 
little more time than I was hoping.

Today was my first full day in Bangkok. It started out great. I had an amazing deep sleep and Cool Cuz, that's my cousin Pete, and I woke up at 7am and jumped a train to the Myanmar embassy to get visas.  Cool stayed up last night and booked our tickets with our departure on Saturday so we needed to apply today to make the deadline without paying an expedite fee. Like I said, the beginning  all worked out great. 

After we left the embassy we walked a couple of miles toward the river, taking in the sites, rustic neighborhoods and street food along the way (a great place to add some photos!).

We eventually made it to a cool area called River city, ate again and jumped on a taxi boat down the river.  

Amazing opportunity to see Bangkok from a wider stance. Cool Cuz has never been in Bangkok and as the boat approached the stop near Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) we decided to get off so he could get a closer look. 

This is just about the time when things began to change from Great to interestingly different. 

Edit.

Wat Arun is stunning.  Buddhist temples, stone and colored tile architecture and structures that call into play spirituality in even the most agnostic being. If you ever have the chance this is a place not to be missed! I toured it earlier this year.
Well today we missed it! 

The taxi dropped us off  a number of blocks from the temple and we entered a neighborhood though a busy outdoor market place, common in Bangkok neighborhoods. We chose to walk through some local streets and eat along the way. Street food here is always the way to go. Rarely a bad idea unless the signs are obvious. A few (local) people eating is usually a good sign.

Som Tom (baby papaya salad) is everywhere at street vendors (yum!).

The reason we never quite made it to the temple though? Things got a little strange in those back village streets. 

Edit.

A boat taxi ride back to the Palace area was quick and free for some reason. We walked through a ton of markets and met up a few people (a local Thai guy, his Japaneese buddy, and 2 girls, one German & one French. We all sat at an outdoor market and had fried seafood and learned how to say bathroom in Thai among other fun words;).  We took the train back to Soi 11 (near our hotel) where the night clubs and music people hang. 

The night completed rather sanely with us bartending in a street bar made out of a vintage VWBug. 

Slep well that night for sure!