Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok

Flying from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok Thailand was pretty simple. Buying the plane tickets online required no identification material other than your name and date of birth. Though checking in was a bit chaotic in Siem Reap, we were amazed at how easy it was to get through Immigration and Customs in Bangkok. We were given a 90-day visitor's visa at no cost. The "Nothing to Declare" line at Customs was unattended so you walk through to the taxi waiting area.

We booked a cheap guest house (Bann Bunga) located on an awning covered street with no large vehicle access. It was hard to find and cause our non-English speaking taxi driver a little trepidation. The fact that it was late at night did not help. Having the written direction only in English added to the misery. The street number was the savior as well as the night street vendors were still around and were able to help us. What a relief...!

...Not so fast. Things got a little dicier when the taxi driver quoted us 300 Baht (Thailand's currency) which comes to 10$ US. He will not accept the ten US, only Baht...never heard of anyone refusing US $. Luckily, directly across from us is a local jewelry and currency exchange shop. The gentleman who came to the night window knew exactly what the problem was. I handed him the 10$ US and give the taxi driver his 300 Baht. Phew, problems solved! Now off to the guest house to get some needed rest.

We woke up the next morning and headed out for a stroll of the area and to get some breakfast. The streets are jam-packed with street vendors selling food of all kinds, among other things. We got rice (rice is a big breakfast thing) and fried egg with curried pumpkin (Prov), and rice with fried egg and curried pork (Sherry). We washed that down with rich french pressed iced-coffee sweeten condensed milk (that's how it's done here and is it delicious). We also got two coconut water, a serving of papaya, pineapple, and watermelon. We are set until late afternoon...off to shopping we go...the share amount of clothing and other vendors were overwhelming. We need to get out of here after I bought a pair of pants and a shirt, that is.

Bangkok is smoggy as you can imagine. Apart from the great street food a small restaurant we found, Bangkok is another "been there, done that" kind of place.

Stir-fried seafood