I made it safe and sound to Bangkok and interestingly enough, I met a fellow Montrealer in Kathmandu who was coming on the same flight as me, so I had a travel buddy for a couple of days! I don’t have much time, but I wanted to share some pictures from Bangkok with you:
We first went to the MBK mall- I felt like I was back at the Eaton’s center except that there was also a fairly large flea market-like area where they were selling tons of random stuff, there were booths with thousands of cell phones, cameras and MP3 players of all shapes and sizes. I also had a great meal in the food court for about $4.
After we finished up at the mall, we were going to visit the royal palace but it was closed. Some nice tuktuk drivers offered to take us around to a few tourists sites for 100bhat. We didn’t realize that the “scam” was that they would take us to some fashion store where they would try to convince me to get a tailor made suit. I actually looked at some of the designs and fabrics, but apparently not long enough for the driver to get his gas voucher (they pay his gas for bringing people to the store I guess). He was quite angry, but hey- some you win, some you lose!
Some pictures from the Wat Benchamabophit temple which is also known as the Marble Temple.
They also had several statues of Buddha in various poses from different eras and areas of Asia.
When we arrived, we saw an area that said: “Do not enter”, so of course, we didn’t. As we walked around and saw the all the buddha statues, we came upon this door. We walked in very quietly since there were monks meditating and as we got to the other side, we realized this was the same “Do not enter” room! Oops.
The next stop was Wat Indrawihan, the temple of the [giant] standing buddha, but not before we got dra
gged into another custom tailor shop. I believe he said the statue was around 30 meters tall!
I’ll wrap up with some pictures from Khao San road, which is one of the main tourist strips here in Bangkok. The second picture is great- this gentleman is quite the character and apparently he’s been doing this for years: He rides around in his suped-up tuktuk blaring Christmas music from artists such as Boney M. I was reminded of Christmas back home! 
neat !
so who exactly is Ian?
never mind
MBK…brings back memories of my trip!:)
I think that Kaosarn Road is good for young travellers. Around the street, there are a number of old buildings and temples, some of which have been transformed into restaurants and even tattoo parlours, although you will still find quiet family homes if you look deep enough. Aside from some interesting architecture, Banglampoo shows the mix of peoples and heritages that is the character of Bangkok. There are Muslims, Buddhists, Mons, and of course a great number of foreigners in this small area. All of this makes the area an interesting place for a glimpse of Thai life. Thais also appreciate the area for the many types of traditional kanom or Thai snacks and desserts available and the cheap clothing available in the Banglampoo Market