Day 1 - Bangkok

The morning brought a hazy sunrise.  We got about five and a half hours of sleep, but were so excited to get up and going that we couldn't sleep in any longer.  The morning's view from the hotel:

This is a b & w "poster" photo.  Super cool feature from my new camera

This is the same feature, but in color and of a different view across the river

After enjoying the view, we got ready and met Sylvie and Henry downstairs for breakfast.  The plan was to have a very light bite to eat before a search for yummy breakfast street food, but once we saw the buffet, it was all over.  We stuffed ourselves to the point I didn't have time to take photos!  The buffets in SE Asia hotels are amazing - they have all kinds of Eastern and Western foods, plus local fruits, which you can get nowhere else.  Amazing.

Stuffed, we headed for the Mandarin Oriental.  On the way we found this cool alley with an old building with pretty shutters.  I couldn't help but take some art shots:

Henry, Andrew & Sylvie

Sadly we walked way past the Mandarin Oriental, so we instead caught a cab to the snake farm.  Thailand's snake farm is partnered with the Red Cross and they are the second oldest snake farm in the world.  We walked through their museum and then sat through a 30 minute "handling" presentation.  They brought out cobras and several other snakes.  Andrew noticed the guy giving the presentation had a few areas on his left arm where it looked like he had been bitten.  Yikes.

Cobra rearing

Another cobra

Lily pad at the snake farm

Funny restroom sign at the snake farm

 After a good freak out, we grabbed a tuk tuk to the Golden Mount (Wat Saket).  We crammed all four of us into the tiny backseat (likely meant for 2 or 3 at most).  Here are a bunch of our knees and elbows :):

The views from the top of the Golden Mount were unbelievable.  My camera was able to take an awesome super panoramic shot:

A spire on top of Wat Saket.  There was an interesting grid of thin rope criss-crossed over the top of the temple, which I tried to shoot here.  The golden spire in the background was a small monument on the corner of the top of the temple.

This is the main spire on the top of the temple.  Again you can see the grid of rope.  None of us could figure out what it was for.

By the time we were done at the temple, we were starving.  Andrew read about a great place for lunch not far from the temple called Chote Chitr.  We arrived to find a teeny tiny restaurant with four tables, all of which were taken.  Since we had heard such good things about the place, we decided to stay and wait.

Welcome sign at the restaurant

Typical street food vendor hanging out a half a block down the street from the restaurant.  This is the quintessential SE Asia photo.

This woman is the heart and soul behind Chote Chitr.  She's the boss and she knows her shit.  She recommended a few of our dishes and they were excellent!

Ground pork salad.  Mmmmmmm.

Prawns in chili and curry sauce.  OMG.

Happy and stuffed with food babies, we caught a long boat back to our hotel to go swimming.  The weather here is super hot and super humid, so we needed a quick refresher.

Long boat ride

Just as Andrew and I had stepped out the doors to look for sunning chairs near the pool, a large figure caught my eye...it was a water monitor casually strolling from one side of the pool path to the other!!!!  The thing was three feet long and slipped away into the underbrush completely unnoticed by anyone but Andrew and me.  I still have no idea if it's the hotel's resident water monitor or if it made an errant turn from the river onto our property.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera to catch it, but Andrew saw it, too, and can back up my story.

 After a quick dip in the pool, we cleaned up and headed to Chinatown for dinner.  A cab dropped us off in the heart of the place - into the chaos.  Everywhere we turned there were street vendors calling to us to eat at their place.  The crowds were crazy and everyone was sweaty and packed on the street like sardines.  Instead of fighting it, we decided on a place that looked good with fresh seafood and our favorite tiny plastic stools.

Chinatown madness

Yummy grilled prawns 

Yellow pomegranites???

Grilled fish

After dinner we headed to Lumphini for Thai kickboxing!  Backstage we found this little guy getting his hands wrapped.  He was happy to pose for a photo:

I was so tired I fell asleep halfway through the first fight, but I still got some great pics.  Here's one of the two small fighters (100 lbs.) doing their traditional Thai dance before the fight.

What a great day - packed full of craziness just like we like it!  We're off to Chiang Mai in the morning.  See you there!