Bangkok I love you, but it's time to break up.

Lying sick in my hotel bed today, I realised that the point had come where it is time to part ways. It's been a lovely relationship, mutually beneficial to both, but tomorrow, like a bat out of Hell, I'll be gone when the morning comes.

Am very much looking forward to heading home. In my upset stomach state today, I finally broke the "No home food" rule and had a steak for dinner. It was terrible, by Australian standards, but at the same time perversely magnificent.

Now, a long flight awaits me. It won't be fun, but the goal at the end is pretty special. 

Funny Stuff

These I found amusing.

Sign for toilets. Very cute.

A Huskey at the Chatuchak markets. Clearly a little pampered! Was well behaved though.

Fans, again at Chatuchak. Not sure the safety regulations are the same as back home.

We bulk ordered lunch, and one of the deliveries came labelled as above. Nicole and I were so excited to see our names written in Thai that we peeled off the stickers and took photos.

Later one of out colleagues pointed out that it was the name of the dish and not our names...

Advertising (This space for rent, apply within).

Bangkok is full of advertising. Anything possible has an advertisement on it.

This Prius advertisement, I thought was the biggest around.

Until I saw this building and it's BMW advertisement.

 Food Hall tables.

The trains have screens showing advertisements and advising of the next station. Note the sub titles alternate between the local dialect and English.

 Grab straps, each with an advertisement.

Station diagram showing availability of McDonalds stores. Somethings are universal.

Transport - Tuk Tuks & Taxis

I want to race a Tuk Tuk.. Rear drive, motorbike engine with throaty exhaust. I reckon they would be a heap of fun. Sound wise, they are most like the Aussie Racing Cars.

They run on gas, I'm not sure whether they use LPG or CNG, I've seen taxis using both. There are no seatbelts or anything like that. Suspect that with a single front wheel, they may understeer a bit.

This is the view as you sit in one. Nicole and I had decided that it was a must do to go for a ride in one. Our plan was to go from the end of our street to the hotel (not very adventurous!) but we ended up being talked into going on a loop visiting a few temples. It was a tourist scam, and we got conned into spending an extra $1AUD.. Even when you get conned in Thailand, it's still cheap! We got a bit more ruthless after that. The money doesn't matter as everything is cheap, it's purely the principle.

We also caught a taxi. 99% of these are Toyota Corollas. I never realised it, but it would appear that the internal dimensions/layout are not quite the same as Corollas here. Note the position of my head and knee. The seat did not go any lower.

The traffic light system which shows you how long until the light changes allows drivers to catch up on some reading.. We caught a taxi to the Grand Palace for the cost of 75 Baht, using the dashboard meter. However, for the return trip, the driver volunteered a price (around 2-3 times what the original voyage cost) without using the meter. Clearly it's best not to catch a taxi from a tourist destination as the price becomes inflated drastically!

Hot Rod Taxi. Looks like they went beserk in the "Performance" section of their local AutoBarn. Most taxis are pink or green & yellow.

Pink Taxi, with pink vinyl seats.. How cool can you get?

Chatuchak Market

Continuing with today's theme of things that are just too much to comprehend is the Chatuchak Market. The actual size of the place is a little much to comprehend. Think 35 acres of the Queen Victoria Market, with something like 8,000 stalls. It's kind of crazy. Finding a stall that you visited the previous day is a challenge itself.

A typical laneway. Nicole and I have spent something like 8 hours there and still missed seeing enormous chunks of the market. There is a fair degree of repeat stores - it seems like there are some franchise arrangements. The market is brilliant for clothing - provided you can find the right size!

Lots of tourist style items there. I don't think the ladder is for sale, but I'm sure that there was probably a ladder shop there somewhere. Nicole and I commented that we hadn't seen any hardware type stalls there - probably in one of the areas we didn't get to.

Plenty of food of course is available. Eg, chocolate coated bananas.

Not everything for sale is nice, or necessarily legal! The blue item at the top of the picture is a baseball bat. Also present are knuckle dusters and the small multi bladed stars that get thrown. Didn't spend much time near this stand!

Thai Grand Palace

Another must do is visit the Grand Palace. This is a mind blowing experience just due to the sheer scale of it.

 The entrance to one of the buildings there.

Hand painted tiles. As far as the eye can see.

 Everything is intricately decorated.

 Every inch is covered in decoration. Right to the ceiling. And there were many, many buildings.

A devil. This chap had 20 or so friends all helping him carry the load.

This building has a Buddha inside which one kneels before and prays to. It is about 5 stories high, and every surfance is painted or decorated.

Example of wall painting. Gold leaf of course.

The little wooden sign on the steps says No Entry. When they say No Entry here, they really mean it.

Public Transport in Bangkok

Public transport in the CBD revolves around the sky train and the subway. Both are excellent. Time tables are not immediately obvious, and it doesn't really matter, as there are services every few minutes. It is a much simpler system than Melbourne, with basically only 2 lines on the sky train and one line on the subway.

This is the sky train vending machine. Choose a number that corresponds to the station you want to go to and you pay for that. Next station in either direction is 1, and incrementing upwards. That's it. No Zones, 2 hour/daily/etc.. You are issued with either a disc (on the subway) or thin plastic card (sky train), both reuseable. The locals buy Myki style cards and swipe on/off.

A tpical sky train. One of these had a sign on it "Design by Porsche" however I didn't get my camera out in time. Each platform has a police man on it in case of shenanigans. The platforms all have markings on where to stand as the train pulls up. They always stop at the right place so the doors are always infront of you.

The other bonus of the sky train system is that it provides an excellent means of crossing the road without becoming road kill.

It can get rather cramped though.. At one stage I counted 4 people I was touching as we were standing there. Definately not an enjoyable experience if you are protective of your personal space!

This chap checks your bags on the way into the subway. A similar process occurs at the entrance to the posher shopping centers. Note the body scanners you have to walk through.

This I didn't understand - lingerie shops at train stations!