Bangkok

Well my first real day out and about here in Bangkok.  Woke up at 3am and watched tv and finished a book until about 7am.  went and had the lousy breakfast here at the hotel.  walked around the markets again but didnt get anything.  found a supermarket and got a huge jug of water for my room.  finally figured out the intoxicating smell of bangkok.  its about 3 parts car/motorcycle fume, 2 parts fish sauce, and 1 part durian fruit.  fantastic.  then worked out from 9-10.  relaxed in the room until 3pm.  then took the bts sky train which is only a couple blocks away to the Siam shopping district which cost less than $1.  walked around the mall for 3 hours and eventually found a book store to restock.  been noticing i get the obligatory head nod from other white people visiting here.  kept looking for the shirt you wanted mark but no luck.  eventually saw some white guy wearing one and asked him where he got it, he said any outdoor market will have one.  next mission!

Also noticed the ever too frequent white guy holding hands with a tranny and old white guy holding hands with young thai boy.  I can see why you want to be here so bad Mark...sicko.

headed back home and hit the street markets that completely surround my hotel.  after watching for a minute figured out you just grab the skewers you want and put them on the grill and keep on eye on them until the vendor deems them ready.  asked the lady next to me what i should get and she pointed to some balls on a skewer i would guess to be pureed chicken.  then i thought i also picked squid but from the laughs and the ladies talking it turned out to be turkey balls...as in testicles and well hung turkeys for that.  she put them in a plastic bag and i chose the red sauce and they laughed again.  pretty spicy but little did they know i was from texas.  walked around some more eating my turkey balls and sweating then settled on another vender and grabbed another 3 random skewers.  this time chicken hearts, chicken liver, and some ground pork?/fish sauce sausage.  all pretty tasty.  then found the red bull tshirts and picked you up one Mark.

still hungry so settled on a outdoor cafe right near my hotel with a mix of locals and tourist.  started off with a large bottle of thai beer and then told the waitress to bring me whatever is the house specialty.  she nodded and walked away but something was lost in translation cause i never got any food.  oh well.  had another beer then heading back to the street markets.  this time finding the insect cart.  got me some crickets and meal worms.  had the crickets first, not bad and will get again, crunchy asian flavored crunchness.  meal worms were crunchy fried egg textured asian flavored stuff.  satisfied i headed back to the hotel.  all in all i spent around $20 today.

will do probably more of the same tomorrow and then look into taking one of the many tours the hotel offers.  probably the river market tour on monday.

looked into my visa problem and the consensus appears to be if i dont leave the country just show up and pay the $2 fine at the airport when i leave and look confused when they question me.  

if anyone wants to vacation this month i highly recommend joining me here.  

the pics are the view from my window.