Gauntlet - Episode 2: Bangkok

Bangkok city, Thailand - June 26-July 2, 2014 - Big city cats.

Curry and chili paste.

The best thing we did was tour around the canals of Western Bangkok with Pandan Tours. I usually don't do tours or tour guides or any of that, but this was really good, and Tao our guide was great. Check them out at www.thaicanaltour.com

It is pleasant riding around the khlongs.

A temple was ahead, and I had never seen any temple like this before.

Then Tao told me it was this big white building across the way.

Inside lay extravagant riches, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of loot.

Notice the fruit in the upper corners, that ripens (upper middle) every 1000 years into a beautiful woman (lower).

The fruit ripening.

When the fruit is fully ripe it is time for the male angels to eat it.

This is another temple from a different sect of the Sangha; the forest sect.As you can see the interior of this sect seems much less materialistic.

Monks study.

At another temple we were lucky enough to witness these two massive turtles shagging.

Second take! How sacrilegious!

Thai-style noodles.

Pandan farm. 

It returns!

See the rest of the our Cambodia/Thailand/Burma/Laos trip:
Episode 1: Pailin, Cambodia
Episode 3: Mae Sot, Thailand
Episode 4: Yangon, Myanmar
Episode 5: Bagan, Myanmar
Episode 6: Mandalay, Myanmar
Episode 7: Vientiane and Vang Vieng, Laos
Coda: Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Concrete Cabin Fever

Thailand, Bangkok city - May 1, 2014 - Bacterial infection in the gut had me stuck in a hotel room in BKK for nearly a week, no drinks allowed. So it goes.

Great old school Thai guesthouse actual, reasonably priced, clean, excellent location, wifi in the lobby and second floor rooms. Pranee Building, next to National Stadium BTS.

Consolation.

A man reeled drunkenly in the bar of a swanky hotel high above me.

Kinda crap you gotta put up with round these parts.

Did get one nice, practiced, Thai smile when I was buying trinkets (to use), however.

Then it was a bus and a van to the border, and a motorbike through the hills home.

Best Kambush Kever

Bangkok city, Thailand - January 22-25, 2014 - I head into Bangkok to surprise my family who think I am still in Cambodia, just in time for the declaration of State of Emergency. The State of Emergency was instituted because of bombings that killed 27 people shortly before, one of many violent events in Thailand leading up to February's election. Life goes on though, and the politics were not intense enough to spoil our reunion.

A cigarette dropped into a pipe.

One of my favourite things about Thailand.

Flowers burn at the flower market.

Silom has been turned into a walking street at the behest of red shirt protesters for weeks now.

The campsite at Silom.

Red shirt gear being sold on the street.

Nightlife in BKK continues unhindered, state of emergency or no.

The remnants of protesters sleep, around 2am.

Forget the ceiling.

Smog.