One Night in Bangkok (ok, ok, three actually)

We've made it from Leam Chabang into Bangkok. Massive city with many different quarters, all with their tower blocks of varying vintages. But it's the Chao Praya river where it's really at: the long tail boats zoom up and down here with a mighty roar! Of course the main focus for our experiences here has to be food. Thai cuisine is right up there with the best in the world. And now we know why!

The day started with a fascinating exploration of what makes Bangkok tick: temples and Buddhas, the river and the Klongs and of course the food. Later that night Scott and Kathy took us to explore a night market: great for both shopping AND eating!Outside the temple of the Golden Buddha:over 500 tons of solid gold!
This one's outside the temple of the Emerald Buddha in the Royal Palace. He's much smaller. And green.
The Reclining Buddha is massive. Huge, infact...

Before we met up with Scott and Kathy, we had to suss out how! In fact it was really easy! We decided to try out the sky train, which is fairly cheap and works efficiently. It operates on a raised track, which meant that we were able to watch the city of Bangkok fall into a hazy sleep as the skyscrapers commenced their attractive glowing displays. Once we had arrived at the evenings treffpunkt, Scott and Kathy took us to the night bazaar where we browsed around the stalls and watched tourists haggling and the locals taking advantage of the naive people who may think that ten pounds for a postcard is a remarkable saving!
This became "Hungry Work" after a while so we decided to go to the food section of the night bazaar. All the flickering stalls had many people inside cooking all kinds of things! There were so many dishes that it was hard to choose just one! We clubbed in for a traditional papaya salad, Thai basil in a curious mystery sauce (tasted a little like Hoi Sin sauce with some other unidentified flavours, and watered down), chicken satay sticks and spring rolls with a sweet chilli dip. Oh and let's not forget the small deep fried crabs, which were also delicious!