golden sitting buddha
buddhist fortune vending machines
chinese temple decor
went back to chinatown today (via subway) to see the largest golden buddha in thailand. if you ask me, i wasn't impressed, as far as buddha statues are concerned, i'm more of a quantity over quality kind of guy. i discovered a few more temples to preoccupy my morning, as well a chinatown history museum. i learned that the chinese and thais have a long history of mutual cooperation, and that king taksin who recaptured the thai capital of ayutthaya in the early 1800's was ethnically chinese. i got a thai ice tea at a 7-11, and accidently spilled some on my shirt which made it appear like i had a little "man business" accident.
i came back to downtown bangkok, briefly visiting lumphini park (too hot!), then riding the skytrain to mochit, to the weekend market. this market is so big, i believe it's the biggest market in the world, and made me dizzy just standing there among the thousands of stalls and tens of thousands of shoppers.
weekend market
thai sculptures
kois
bees (stingless?)
rooster (1500 baht for a mating pair)
beetle grubs
i bought some bugs (to eat) again before i left, then wandered the various mall bookstores in downtown bangkok until i found a copy of "farang," a bangkok-based english-language traveling magazine about things to do in southeast asia. i went back to the guesthouse to do some reading, snacking on my bugs. grasshoppers i already had, but beetle grubs was something new: after my first bite i didn't want anymore. while grasshoppers are crunchy, beetle grubs are soft and have a unique taste which can only be described as insect-like.
my taxi arrived at 5AM, just 8 more hours away.