All roads lead to Bangkok

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So very little has happened since my last update. We stayed around in Indonesia another two days then flew to Bangkok. I had to get more tests and then I had to get my medicine then we got the hell out of Indonesia. I really enjoyed most of what I saw but being sick and in that crazy heat wasn't pleasant. I will give it another chance but Bali isn't really a very exciting place since it is expensive and overly busy.

Sheryl and I went to a temple called Tanah Lot one night to watch the sunset. It is a temple cut off at high tide and looks quite spectacular but sadly the sun set wasn't that desirable that night so we sat on the beach talking and wandering through shops there. We left the next day to Bangkok which was a little crazy as we showed up to the airport without a flight booked, found out we had to pay with cash for same day flights, withdrew 4 million total for the flight which was a huge stack of money (1 CAD = 9000 rupiah). Only to have them say that was the price without baggage and airport tax etc etc. Slightly stressful and that made us even more thankful to get the heel out of Indo and back to lovely old Thailand.

We spent our first day eating street vendor food and roaming around doing some window shopping. The second day we did a day trip up to the old temples an hour or so north of Bangkok which turned out to be the Old Capital city known as Ayutthaya. It has some of the most famous postcards and structures here which were great to see but you had to pay to enter every temple grounds and everything in these areas was expensive because people here love to prey on tourists. We headed back home for some more good eats and even more shopping!

The next day we took a taxi down to Limpini Market and spent hours walking through the street vendors bartering and haggling our way in and out of stalls. We spent 4 hours and only covered 1 of 4 sectors in little detail. It would be a great place to furnish and decorate a house though... We found the street food there and gorged ourselves before heading back to have an easy night because shopping and bartering is rather tiring.

We did even more shopping the next day. We headed to MBK, the giant shopping complex and wandered around there most of the day. We headed back to Kao San road where the backpackers stay, had dinner and met some Brit's, and Americans so we had a few drinks with them before I had to take Sheryl home because she had a little too much fun since it had been a while since we had drank anything last.

The next day was spent nursing hangovers and just drinking fruit juice and enjoying the street vendor goodness. I think we ate about 20 meat on a sticks that day. mmmm hmmmm goodness!

We have been going to nightly aerobics in the park and it is fun to see the people just show up out of nowhere and start doing these intensely hard choreographed (they follow an instructor) routines which are quite strenuous and very fun. All this happens at sunset and the national plays at 6pm and everyone stops and stands at attention. It is quite interesting and respectful to see.

Yesterday we did nothing, just had a lazy day walking around the city and eating more street vendor food. We just tried to kill a day so Sheryl wouldn't wait alone for her flight today as she is off to Vietnam to go to an archaeology conference and I am waiting in the meantime to head to Chiang Mei for elephants and cooking classes! Today has just been a day of two breakfasts, book shopping and lazing around.

I am sure my adventures will get more exciting now that I am not sick and off to an exciting area of the world yet again. 10 more days till Norway and 32 until I am back in Canada! Where does the year go?

***photos aren't uploading properly but a few did =( ***

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