March 8th - Bangkok

Woke up and packed up as I have to leave tonight around 9pm for the airport for a 2am (ugh!) flight direct from Bangkok BKK airport back to Japan.

The hotel checkout time is noon and they are booked so they were unable to extend me the possibility of a 3pm "late checkout"   Not a big deal as Bob and Shirley

are staying another night, so I got my bags ready to move to their room before we left for our morning excursion.    Took care of that and checked out of my room

officially and then we all took off for some light breakfast and coffee over at "Coffee@8", the little corner coffee store a few blocks away that we've been going to.

I had some eggs sunny-side-up with wheat toast and some bacon along with my default Thai Milk Tea.    Bob and Shirley had similar dishes.    It was easy and quite good --

and was only a few US $'s for the entire meal.

We decided after a leisurely breakfast that we'd head out to another one of the restaurants/neighborhoods that I'd found on "migrationology.com"  web site

(a site that this guy who now lives in Thailand has written with many many foodie adventures and reviews on it).    So we jumped on the skytrain and

headed to the station past Siam Station.    The google maps of the area also indicated that there was a mosque in the area, so something else we could look

at.

As we left the restaurant I got a great shot of a local guy that walks (or rolls) the neighborhood selling ice cream / popsicles:

Also, on the skytrain I'd noticed (but not really read) some signage near the seats nearest the doors that I had assumed were a weird

symbol for "reserved for women" or some such.   Actually, in taking a closer look it was reserved for Monks!  Really!!

Anyway, made it to the correct station and followed the google maps dots in the direction needed to get to the restaurant, which is called "P'aor".   Along the way

we saw a very strange tree with odd flowers on it!  I bet it is very much "not to code" 

Around the corner the trees were not wired and had some very pretty purple bloom on them.  Shirley posed-

Along the way we spotted a street with lots of hawker stands on it.   Technically it was not the way were were going, but we took a little

side trip to check it out (and I had some treats along the way!)

We headed back "on course" but before we crossed over the road we were supposed to (you had to go up-and-over vs across) I saw a store

which had my name on it.    I actually got what looks like an apple pastry, but was actually some type of potato/veggie pastry -- but really good!

A bit closer to our destination the "veggie guy" drove past:

Almost there, but the street got some real traffic on it -- scares me walking with these things zipping by with cars too!

Anyway, found restaurant P'aor -- thanks to google maps app without which there is NO WAY I'd have ever figured it out.

Bob and Shirley decided they were not hungry so they kept wandering around while I stopped in for a little meal.

So turns out the item I wanted was only available in "large" but a friendly patron who spoke more english than the shop owners told me to just order

what was on the front of the menu as it was "almost same thing but smaller".   Great advice!    So I got what for me was a large bowl of 

thin ramen-like noodles in a lemon grass coconut broth with a little spice to it (not too spicy, just right).   There were strips of fresh crab meat along with

a huge prawn in the shell in the bowl.   I also got a lemon honey iced tea to go with that.   Oh it was SOOOOOO GOOD!

Met back up with Bob and Shirley and we headed back to the skytrain.   On the way we passed the Mosque, which was actually pretty small in size.

I took a few shots as we passed by...

Also saw another pretty purple flower tree -- took this photo as we passed

When we were on the Skytrain there was also some official with a dog, resting.... Got this shot

Bob and Shirley headed back to the hotel once we got to Nana Station.   I decided to take an hour and get a food massage.

No pictures, sorry, but it was very nice.   Went to the same massage place that Mel and Judy had recommended and where I'd

had the full body massage a few days earlier (called "Baan Dala" on Soi 8).

After that I headed back to the hotel around 1pm.   Got into my swim trunks and headed with my kindle up to the pool area for the hotel.

Hung out there and read a book, soaked in the saltwater pool and generally relaxed until 5pm at which point I went back to Bob and

Shirley's room to enter this before leaving with them for dinner.   We decided to return to the food stands on Soi 38 again.

We went right back to our favorite "garage of hawkers" and picked out a table in the back.    

The hawkers came up with their menus and 'swarmed up' and pretty soon the food started to roll in

Here's some great shots of the guy who made the fish for us -- love the mask!

Then we moved on to this "famous" dessert place that we missed last time.   Got two different desserts -- two coconut milk ice cream's and one

Thai Shaved Ice dessert.   Both were good, but the coconut ice cream was amazing!   I had one all the myself with 3 scoops!

That was really good, but we felt a need to also revisit the "fruit filled roti" stand from a few nights ago.   This time we got four instead of three different ones:

Headed back towards the hotel, but stopped to get another belt.   The one I got at the market has a little problem in not always staying shut :-(   It's not a hole-punched

belt, but rather a catch mechanism.    So I found a lady that had the hole punch type.   Here's her punching the holes and a video as well!

Hung out for another hour and then said goodbye to Bob and Shirley and grabbed a cab to the airport.   Got there way too early -- had to wait an hour and twenty before 

the ticket counter for my ticket checkin opened.    However, it finally did and I got my ticket and checked my larger bag as they would not let me carry it on.   Probably for the

best as I was running a little low on energy and it was still a huge walk (or would be) from the ticket counter through customs/immigration all the way to my gate.   I think

all airports want "international" to mean "big hike!".    So before I took the hike after checking my bag I got a thai iced tea to give me a little more energy -- it was after 11pm at night

now and I had to stay up until 2am for the flight!    Ugh.    On the way to the iced tea I saw them collecting carts, which was kind of funny looking.    Then it was on towards customs

to check-out.   Along the way I saw some interesting "large" art.

Made it to the gate and had another hour to wait, but they finally opened the gate area and then let us board the plane.    Turns out row 6 board last, not first,

but I guess the good news is that we get to exit first.    Flight was full, but there was plenty of overhead space.    Seats were 3-3, so pretty small.   There was

some tall guy behind me whose knees occasionally ended up in my back, which was not fun, but I avoided an international incident and didn't do much more than

push back enough to get him to move his knees out of my back during some of the flight time.     Caught sun-up through the window, which was unique: