Out of my box: Thailand, Days 5/6/7

Plans for Bangkok:
- morning street vendors
- getting around on the trains, taxis, boat and tut tuts

Highlights:

Morning street vendors
It was a late night last night but we were too excited to sleep in even a little bit. Too much to eat and see and do and eat. Since last year, Maci and I have been watching the street vendor cooking series on importfood.com, a fave Thai website of ours:

http://importfood.com/vendor_video/thai_street_vendor_videos.html

We absolutely had to try the street vendors for ourselves. We drooled enough over the videos.

Outside our hotel, sure enough, there they all were lining the streets on both sides. Dream come true. Where to start, where to start??

All the fresh mango slices, papaya slices, and star apple slices a person can ask for.

"Where to start?"

"Mango slice. Don't botha me."

The BEST Thai egg omelet ever.

Trying out all kinds of Thai vendor foods for our breakfast was a highlight for us all--and it wasn't even 8:30a.m.. We stood outside the train station feasting on our different purchases. When we decided we really liked a certain vendor's food, we went back for 2nds. Sometimes 3rds. The chicken skewers or chicken wings were a hit with us. As were the fruits. But the egg omelette was to die for. What an awesome morning. I was supremely happy and content to stand there eating all day. This was what I imagined Thailand to be.

Getting around town
Full of energy and food, it was time to explore Bangkok. Strangely enough the weather was overcast and mild. According to some vendors, weather such as this was very uncommon this time of year. It was supposed to be hot and humid. Guess we brought the cold with us.

We explored Bangkok using all sorts of public transportation: BTS sky train or the MRT (their BART); taxi; ferry; and tuk tuk. Traffic is amazingly congested. I'm convinced the lines on the streets (similar to HK and China and Macau) are simply for design. Yet, despite the bumper-to-bumper traffic, the movement of traffic seemed almost choreographed. For all the cut-offs there seemed to be a distinct lack of road rage, horn honking and accidents. Choreographed graceful chaos.

All-day ferry ticket

Just like Hong Kong, Bangkok has such a clean and efficient train system. It was easy to get to where we needed to go.

Dangerous and fun tuk tuk. Tip: when riding in one of these, NEVER look behind you. Not a ride for the faint of heart.

After going around town, we were hungry again. Luckily there were afternoon street vendors with an even wider range of foods to choose from.

Congested Bangkok

More coconuts for Maci

Beautiful dragon fruit.

Floating Market

(I must give special thanks to Jim, Art, and Chris for making a special trip to the mall the night before our excursion to the floating market. I forgot my cam battery charger and was out of juice. One absolutely can not go to one of the world's most photographed places and not have a camera. Unthinkable. They were wonderful in making sure I had my camera ready to go for our market trip. Love you, guys! Thank you!!)

A dream come true. For years I've wanted to experience sitting on a Thai boat riding down the canal and taking in the sights of the open market on water. It was beautiful and colorful and delicious and exciting and a host of other fun and positive adjectives. It was perfect. From the hour and a half scenic ride to the market in a private car to the coconut greeting at the start of our boat ride. If I had to change anything, I would have bought more and not bother with the whole haggling for the price thing. What's an extra 20 Baht in the long run? Not even a dollar.