Mar 4th - Bangkok

Woke up and took a walk around for a pre-breakfast hawker stand check.    There is a "private park" which opens about 6am between the hotel and the main street that I walked through.

Private just means they close it at night and its not open to the public until they reopen.     Nice looking place.

Anyway, outside the park on the main street I found a hawker selling a bag of small half moon shaped pastry or fried pastry items.   Wasn't sure what it was, but bought a bag and later

shared some with Bob and Shirley when they joined me.    Turns out it was a bean curd inside, which was almost like a sweet custard in flavor.   It was actually quite nice.

After eating a few of these we walked back down the street and stopped at the hawker whom Bob had gotten stuff from on his previous trip here a month or two ago.

She did a great fried rice at lunch and her breakfast today was a stir fry on top of a bed of rice with a fried egg on top.    I asked her to put everything in except 

onions at Shirley's request --- it was a little spicy but really really flavorful.

To eat this we walked back to the park and sat on a bench.   The guy who was in the park earlier in the morning actually was the owner/caretaker of a 

big cockatoo that he was exercising in the park.   Very cool bird!  Turns out a friend of his owned it and got sick so couldn't take care of the bird anymore.

They'd tried to give it to the Zoo, but due to a bird flu concern back then the Zoo refused, so he ended up taking over the bird (who did not have the flu) and they

have been together for something like 8 years.   Here are some pictures and a video of it.

After this meal we walked down the street looking for the area that my friends from Hawaii usually stay in.   They had suggested a restaurant and a massage place that they

really liked and we wanted to at least scope out where they were.   We found both -- below is a picture of me in front of the restaurant sign.   Plan on going back there for

dinner tonight.

Went back to the main street -- it was hot and humid!   So we stopped to get some coffee/tea at a shop there.   I got a nice 

Thai Milk Tea (which I am hooked on!).   Not as sweet as the "Thai Iced Tea" in the US (and this was a hot one) but on the sweeter side and very good.

The tea shop had a few funny signs -- and some "inappropriate" that you would NEVER see in the US today.   Here's one of them!

I should also mention that heading up the road back to the coffee house there were some cool sites.   Someone with their "scooter/truck" full of broom type stuff

and a nice dog.

We jumped on the "sky train" (which was air conditioned!!) and went a few stops to the "Victory Plaza" stop where I'd seen an online youtube about a 

really cool "river noodle house" restaurant.   I left the picture big so you could all see the "direction" we had to take to get there -- that would be towards

"Mo Chit" :-)    Seems appropriate!!

Also saw another cool monk walking the streets -- not unusual here, but something I never see back home.   I pray that he will protect

me from this other "evil religious figure" that I came across.    Pray that I NEVER eat at his home!!!

Both Bob and I took a photo in the wedge of a big apple :-)   Somewhat like James and the Giant Peach?

Notice the worm above me to the left :-)

So we found the noodle house and ordered the "Noodles Thicken Soup With Pork" (that's what the menu said) for 12 THB each (that's about 37.1 cents per bowl).

I also had some cold water and ice (it was bottled water -- eh, not much on the ice!) and

a little dessert custard thing that they brought out un-asked for.    The pork and noodle bowl was very good.   Total for 2 waters, 2 dessert items (if they even charged) and 3 bowls

was under $3 US!)   Wow!    We had eaten enough in the morning that we didn't need/want more, but many people had bowl after bowl of these things (sometimes with different

things added into them).   They'd then stack the bowls up -- sometimes 10 high.   They charged "by the bowl" more than anything else, which is kinda cool.

Here's pictures of the guy making the dish.

Headed back to the skytrain station near our hotel and stopped at a mall area, both for more AC and for a dessert treat "to go".  We all got two

eclairs to take back to the hotel.   The place also had a full high end market, so I got a bottle of san pellegrano water, some milk and cereal for snaking on

(as I have a fridge and a kitchen in my room!).    On the way back to the hotel with this we stopped at a fruit stand vendor and got some chopped up 

watermelon, papaya and pineapple as well.    Slight risk, but it looked so good!

Went back to room to upload this and take a nap!

Woke up around 4pm and decided to go and try out the massage place that Judy and Mel, friends from Hawaii, had said was a nice place.

Walked over to it (we'd found it this morning) and did a one hour full body massage.   It was very relaxing and nice.   Got back just after 6pm

and let Bob and Shirley know I'd be ready for dinner in about 10 as I had to get the "oil" off me :-)   

We all started over to the restaurant that Mel and Judy had said they liked so much (again, that we'd found this morning).   Our hotel is set back a ways

from the main street, which is not a major walk, but they do provide a guy in a golf cart type thing (with about 6 seats) that jets people from the hotel to the main road

so you can "skip" that walk.    He was around as we left the hotel so we hopped on.  I say "jets" because the thing is driven like its a jet ski (or the 

Millenium Falcon from Star Wars -- or some type of "warp factor" star ship...)   

Anyway, with that "boost" we got to the main street (we're on "10" as a side street number) and walked over to "8" and then down it to the restaurant for dinner.

For dessert I got the coconut ice cream (something Mel said was really good here).   Bob and Shirley split the Mango Sticky Rice, which turns out

came with a scoop of same ice cream and, oddly enough, the rice they had was green.  I don't know why :-)

We also had a "dessert Amuse Bouche" from the Chef.   Some nice selections of fresh fruit

So we finished up and paid the bill and then headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night.