Bangkok

We arrived Bangkok late yesterday afternoon. We got to our hotel, security checked our van for bombs...there is a bit of unrest here, demonstrations in the streets. Our hotel is beautiful, right on the river. We stayed at the hotel, had dinner and went to bed.

This morning we had a delicious breakfast, let Alex swim for a few hours then we started our adventure into the city. It was a bit like being in a movie. We took a water taxi from the hotel up the river and got off at the sky train. We took the sky train into the city and went to look for some shopping.

Our first stop was like a high end US mall. We asked some folks where to go and ended up in a Tuk Tuk (small cycle with a seat on the back) and were off through the back streets of Bangkok. He took us to a building and said we could shop for clothing. We went in and realized this wasn't what we thought it would be. But, I wanted to shop for a dress for my son Michael's wedding in July and we were in a shop that had Thai silk and a tailor. I ended up being fitted for a beautiful silk dress and jacket which is being delivered to our hotel tomorrow evening...

what a fun experience...

then our Tuk Tuk took us to the MBK -- a shopping mall with bartering---I think it has 10 floors of every kind of shop you could imagine...

We had so much fun bartering for gifts and a few things to bring home....

4 hours later we were back on the sky train to the pier and on the water taxi to our hotel...

We are sitting in the business center checking email and blogging...

We are off to shower and go to dinner...then tomorrow back to MBK....

We can't go to the street markets because of the mobs demonstrating, they told us it wouldn't be safe for Americans...

We have one more day in Bangkok, then we leave very early on the 17th but gain a day coming home so we arrive Seattle the 17th around 11:30 a.m.

I was dreading Bangkok, it 's not so bad...we had a great day