A week in Bangkok is more than enough for us

We had been contacted by an American couple, Lisa and Lance who were asking about our time in the stan countries, and they just happened to be in Bangkok and asked if we wanted to get together. We were planning on heading downtown anyhow, so when they suggested a meeting point in a shopping mall in a downtown area we hadn't been to, we were totally fine with that.

We left the apartment at about 11:10am, and arrived at the big fancy Terminal 21 mall and headed to the 5th floor food court. Lisa had suggested having lunch here. Certainly not the type of place we would normally choose, however there were a lot of local food choices, and with typical street food prices.

We were planning on arriving at 12:30pm, but were a little late at about 12:40pm. 

The monorail line built above the main road.

Arrived at Terminal 21 mall.

It's a huge place!

We sat and chatted for an hour and a half while having lunch, then walked over to the nearby Benjakitti Forest Park. 

Lisa and Lance are from Washington D.C. area. They are fairly new nomads, having sold their condo and all their stuff although they are keeping a storage facility for some things they didn't want to get rid of. They did a cruise from Vancouver to Sydney, spent some time there, then made their way to Bangkok. They are here for a couple more weeks and they've already been here two weeks. 

So we're walking along, and we hear some rustling in a nearby bush. Looked over, and there was this huge lizard looking thing! It was probably about four feet long including the tail!

It's an Asian Water Monitor.

Apparently they are quite common. They can grow more than six feet long!

Bangkok.

There are a lot of skyscrapers in Bangkok.

Ussie with Lisa and Lance.

Bangkok as seen from Benjakitti Park.

We went our separate ways from there. 

Ruth and I headed through one of the seedier parts of town on our walk back to the SkyTrain station. As I'm sure you all know, Thailand is well known for its sex trade industry. In a country of 71 million people, there are apparently 500,000 people who work in this business in some form or another.

Lots of cheap hotels with many businesses advertising things in English only. There was even a Hooters restaurant. In other restaurants and bars, many scantily dressed women, often hanging out with much older western looking men. 

Just stumble on in!

Some interesting things to see, and I'm sure it would be even more interesting at night! 

Of course the sex industry isn't just for tourists, although this area certainly caters to that.

This is just down the street from our apartment, and it definitely caters to locals because there aren't any tourists in our part of town.

Continuing on, we saw this...

Yes, Canadians can feel right at home in downtown Bangkok!

While we enjoyed our time here, a week in Bangkok is more than enough for us. Today, we are taking the train about an hour north to the much smaller city of Ayutthaya. We've got five days there, which is more than we wanted, but our onward destination of Khao Yai National Park couldn't take us until the 13th. But the place we are staying gets great reviews, and we'll easily be able to find enough to do for five days.

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