Food and Stuff

i had trouble obeying that sign.

nice eyes lady!

Well we had a good couple of days! Someone from our church put us in contact with Preecha. He and his wife Nit were extremely happy to host us for a couple of days. On Saturday night we went out to eat with them. The Sunday we spent the morning at their place and had lunch with their family and some neighbours. They fed us so well. Nit made an amazing green curry and we finished the meal with about four different desserts. I loved them all, since they all involved coconut, and Erin...not so much.

dessert

After that we went to a city called Pattaya. It's on the coast and is one of the main draws for tourists. The beach is ok, but the main reason people come here is for the prostitution. I had heard that 80% of all tourists in Thailand come for the legalized sex trade. And after seeing Pataya I believed it. It's not an exageration to estimate that there must have been 10 000 white males there by themselves. It's pretty disturbing to see old Europeons parading around with teenage thai girls. Preecha and Nit wanted us to see that part of Thailand. We're glad we did...but not at the same time.

Nit and Preecha above Pattaya

We had also heard that Thai people love to eat. That has been proved true. After seeing the scene in Pattaya we went into one of the many malls in town. (That's another story in itself. The malls here are crazy. Picture the Penn Centre and then stack 6 of them on top of each other. Then fill that mall with so much stuff that there are very thin aisles. Then put one on every other block around the city. It's crazy!) Back to eating. So in the mall Preecha wanted to get some ice cream. The store had a promotion on that gave you 6 scoops for about $3. The price was too good to resist so we got that. After that we headed back for Chonburi where Nit and Preecha live. By this time it was 8:30 or so, and after a big lunch an 6 scoops of ice cream plus a coconut while we walked, we figured that would be it. But no, we went to the amazing outdoor food market as soon as we got back to Chonburi. And fishished our day with more amazing thai food. We're meeting up with Nit and Preecha and an island in the south later this week...and we'll tell you a little about them then. But I will say that they're amazing people and perhaps the nicest we've ever met

dessert

This morning we came back to Bangkok and are set to take a bus tonight to the south of Thailand, where we'll do a little island hopping. Today we were struck again by just how great the transport is here compared to Africa. The bus station is 4 floors and everything happens on schedule, whether the buses are full or not. Everything is just so organized; if you've ever traveled in Africa you know how much of a pain it can be.

'Rin enjoying the bus terminal!
Lots of destinations

Since we arrived at lunch in Bangkok and our bus leaves at 8, we thought we'd see what's called the Theives Market. This is in the Chinese area of the city. It's a large covered market that was once famous for having lots of stolen items. Everything seems to be legit there now. We were amazed by the variety of crap and non crap that was available. If you're a gamer you'd go nuts for the thousands of video games and systems available at prices that would make you bring some home to sell. Or if you want a real i-pod for $20, or a fully auomatic weapon then this is your place. Erin just bought a cheap watch since hers died today. (sorry Danielle, old pinky bit the dust) Other than that we just walked though it and made a mental list of all the things we plan to pick up before we fly home from Bangkok in 4 months time. Shopping here for anything is so cheap compared to home. All the brands we love at home are made here.

Hopefully our next blog is from a tropical paradise.