Bangkok, Bang Lamphoo

We are headed for the river. Again, this is an area where you get off the train and everything you thought you knew about getting around disappears. There are several piers, many boats, and few signs in English. We find a tiny cafe between two piers and take a seat for a bit and refuel with a cold beverage. This allows us to get our bearings and figure the system out.

We take the tourist boat, while it sounds over priced and not quite what we want, it turns out to be just right. You pay 18Baht, about $0.52 cents and get on a boat with a tour guide telling you about each stop. You can stay on the boat and return to the starting point or get off at any station. There is even a special price of 100Baht for an all day on-off pass. Our first boat trip we get off at Bang Lamphoo, the backpackers area. This is a whole subculture of travelers who are traveling on a serious budget. Lots of dreadlocks and Westerners here. I also notice this is the first place with books in English. We are missing our Lonely Planet support guide that we had for Hong Kong and Macau.

We are enjoying this shaded area and find a guest house to sit and watch some of the world go by. Guest houses are all-in-one places with rooms, restaurant, bar, laundry, internet, travel services and probably even more that I wasn't looking for. The place we were at had rooms from $5 to $15 a night. The higher price included a private bath and an air conditioner. We think this is a good value!

We head out again, walking any where our feet take us. Up and down odd streets, past a Budah, around a temple with no real goal..... We are now looking for somewhere inside that is air conditioned for lunch. We are not having success. We are in the middle of a huge outdoor market again. It is hot and we are tired and hungry. We have to get out of the market, we turn and more stuff for sale, we walk, turn, walk...turn. Getting warmer and warmer and very dehydrated. We finally find a Chinese restaurant with inside seating and the menu pictures don't look too bad. I order dim sum, victor orders Italian. We cool down!

Funny thing about dim sum, you think there are hundreds of different items, and maybe there are, but the staples are all the same, about 6 of them on every menu with only a few different items. I like dim sum far more than Victor and notice that I am doing more ordering of new foods than he.