Bangkok, less briefly

alright!
it's mid afternoon now, the sun is shinning brightly through the leaves of the trees, and sean and i have decided to have a sit down before we head out to explore again.

i mentioned before that this city isn't so bad after all... the more time i spend in it, the more i enjoy it. the winding and confusing sois (alleyways) are criss-crossed with tiny and huge canals; a massive meandering river cuts through the city, creating the only mode of transportation that doesn't involve traffic jam. large boats power up and down the river, picking people up at frequent wobbly and scary docks. a man on each boat courageously lunges off the boat at each stop to tie it down quickly while whistling orders to the driver. two short whistles - back up; funy whistle, pull in towards the dock; one quick whistle, okay let's go!
and once you're on the large boat packed with all sorts of people, the river that looked so chaotic from the shore suddenly opens up infront of you, much more expansive and open than it ever could appear from land. and there you have it, a cheap (13 baht; 40 cents to go anywhere) ride that locals and tourists alike use to get around.

and then the fancy stuff. well, this is the kind of stuff that's easier to describe with pictures. we'll post those on face-crack when we get back into Wonju, but but simply the expansive temple grounds are a massive slap in the face with sparkling gold, turquoise and red, tall and fat buildings that all somehow seem very light, a good number of tourists but not chockingly so, and a very good number of people who work constantly to keep the place looking meticulously cultivated and clean enough to lick any surface safely.

that's pretty much all we've done today so far. a relatively uninspiring trip to the grocery store is probably going to be sean's most memorable part of the day. we spent a while looking for all the right sauces and stuffs to be able to recreate thai food when we're back home. i was excited about the plum sauce, and sean went ape-shit for the sweet soy sauce, mushroom sauce, sweet chilli sauce, palm oil, tamirand juice... a box full of goopy delicious stuff, all for the price of 206baht - 8 bucks!!

oh, and yesterday we hit jackpot and found some sort of earring paradise. the prettiest jade, metal, sparkling.. tunnels and flares and plugs.. you name it they had it. i'm thinking of popping back in there today, for the sake of getting cheap earrings, especially considering the fact that a "discount" in canada means you'll pay 'only' 40 or 50 bucks for one single earring. bs. anyways, i'm getting ants in my pants and my belly is starting to grumble. time to see what other cool things we can NOT spend our money on in this city full of colourful and shinny things. we're gonna have to take pictures of all the cool things we've found here once our house is decorated with them. damn good thing we're moving into house bigger than a shoebox!

my love to all of you. hugs!