Bangkok

  So,  we found this little cafe across the stree and around the corner. You actually have to take an escalator to go down under the street and come up on the other side. It is called the 511 cafe. We ate there a lot and will go there tonight just before boarding our sleeper train to Laos.

Here we are last night.

Lots of backpackers come here to hand out. The owner is very outgoing and gets involved with all of the customers. 

If you are a diet coke fan, here is what the cans look like in Thailand. Kind of exotic.

One of the important sites you are supposed to visit is the National Museum complex which also includes the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. So... Off we go, assuming we can just hail a taxi, hand the driver the map and say "take us to the National Museum". After several attempts to communicate this to a couple of drivers and to make sure a driver had an actual meter in his car, we gave up and with heads hung low, returned to our hostel and requested assistance from the manager. He hailed a taxi, talked at length to the driver and assured us we would be delivered to the correct place.

And we were... Delivered to the entrance with perhaps another million people.

Along with buying my tickets, I was directed to the "costume shop" to rent a sarong to wrap around my lower half because my leggings (although long and well covered by a long shirt) were deemed not appropriate. With that done, we plunged into the mass of people. The most dangerous part of this being the many short people with umbrellas that rested just about eye level for us. It would have certainly been better to visit this honored site with a guide, but I have to say the mass of people made viewing all parts of this facility was down right claustraphobic. 

The amount of detail in the mosaic work was tremendous. The number of Buddhas, dragons, lions, snakes, etc was also impressive.

 I am sad to say, we succumbed to overload and did not make it in to the central part of the temple to see the actual reclining Buddha. 

I turned in my sarong and we escaped, made our way across the street to a cafe, bought some cooling drinks and sat in air conditioning along with many other sweaty visitors.

Next, we experienced one of the many things tourists are warned about.... We hailed a taxi, gave the driver directions to take us the the Hua Lampong train station (across the street from our hostel, but a main landmark in the city). He affirmed and we hopped in. A few minutes into the ride, he started speaking  in very broken English about having to stop, take us somewhere else, perhaps he said something about gas. We just kept giving him the name of our destination. He finally got mad, turned off the meter, pulled to the curb and motioned for us to get out. Luckily we were in a safe but busy area. We hailed another cab and this time, got a nice driver, with some English and he took us right where we requested. 

I have to say, this city is a little overwhelming. In the hotels, cafes, businesses, the Thai people are helpful and sometimes friendly. Certainly, most of these people speak pretty good English, but many wait staff and even direct service staff do not and there is no commonality in Enlish and Thai so a lot of gesturing and pointing to pictures is what one resorts to.