Bangkok

The stunning reclining Buddha
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We sadly ended our leg in China and made our way to Bangkok, Thailand (actually on an airplane this time around rather than a train!) Our first day in Bangkok was a free day and since it was Sunday, we made our way to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. This market is amazing. There are over 1,500 stalls selling everything from clothing to furniture and everything in between. We enjoyed a great lunch of green papaya salad (a must have in Thailand we were told) as well as another with fried mango and green papaya. Most wonderful!! It’s my new favorite Thai meal item.

Our yummy green papaya salad lunch
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That evening we met up with our new tour group. This time, Scott’s got two other men so he’s just a little less outnumbered than the last time around. We hit a street market in the Kau Sun area for a little Paenang curry and a Singha beer. Mmmmm….so excited about the Thai food as we do love our Thai.

Our final day in Bangkok took us to a river boat cruise on the Chao Pra river. Bangkok is known as the Venice of the East in that it has a number of canals throughout the city. We learned that (as much of the population is Buddhist) many of the houses have miniature adorned houses outside called spirit houses that keep the good spirits around and not the bad. Our destination was Wat Pho (or temple). This temple has a famed reclining gold Buddha. It was quite amazing. We then made our way over to the Grand Palace, the former royal residence (of course after a lunch of pad thai and green curry) . The grand palace is quite the place and houses the famous emerald Buddha (initially it was thought to be made of emerald, but was found out later to be carved from one piece of jade).

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We were off to check out the Thai overnight train experience as our next stop was Chiang Mai. Possibly our most exciting foody moment was finding the Miang Kham in the shopping mall of all places. Girls had a little kiosk set up and were wrapping up the little snacks and packaging them up. They looked at us a little funny when we wanted to order some – mainly because I wasn’t pronouncing it correctly. We left with smiles and made our way to the train station. For those of you that haven’t had them, find them and try them!! It’s a party in your mouth. Our tour leader was impressed and said she had never met a foreigner on her trips who had eaten this Thai snack before. It was a wonderful treat.