Takraw in the park

Wat Pho

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Arriving in Bangkok was a bit of a shock.  It is very Westernized (the ride from the airport into the city reminded me of Toronto)and there's lots of traffic and many modern high-rises and shopping malls.  Though Thailand is a very Buddhist country, one of the favorite past times is shopping.  In fact, you can often see a small shrine set up just outside of a large shopping complex.

We were looking forward to authentic Thai food so we headed to the MBK center.  Yes, it is a mall food court.  Yes, it is unbelievable with such amazing street food in Bangkok we chose to dine in a mall.  But the food was delectable, truly Thai food. 

On Sunday, we headed to the enormous Chatuchak weekend market (so big we needed a map).  We saw everything imaginable;  souvenirs of all kinds, pets of all kinds (puppies, snakes, squirrels, exotic birds and fish...), cocks for cockfighting, exotic fruit, shoes, furniture...anything and everything.  For our afternoon snack we stopped at a crowded food stall.  There were no seats and a young man invited us to sit with him.  We ate and chatted, he taught us some Thai and then paid for our snack!  He refused to take our money.

Bangkok skyline

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That night we got a peek at Bangkok's seedy side.  In the night market area there are tons of strip joints and live sex shows.  You can walk down the street, with souvenirs stands on one side and peek into the open doors of the strip clubs on the other side, a very odd mix of consumerism and sex on display.  There are men everywhere selling "dirty" DVD's and thrusting lists of "acts" at the ping pong shows (send me message if you're dying to know what this is) into your hands.  Our sense of modesty over-ruled our curiosity and we decided to give the shows a pass.  Although the area sounds disturbing, the most disturbing things we saw was the baby elephant being used as tourist attraction and the 2 year old begging for money.

Our last day in Bangkok was spent at Lumphini Park.  There was so much going on!  We saw people jogging, outdoor aerobics classes and weight "rooms", giant lizards and 'Takraw'.  Takraw is an incredible sport.  It's just like volleyball but the players use only their feet and heads.  Imagine a combination of gymnastics, soccer and volleyball.  We sat spellbound for 2 hours watching men play until a thunderstorm forced us to leave.  That evening, we got on a sleeper train to Chiang Mai.