Bangkok
In Bangkok, for the first time, we stayed in a hotel with a swimming pool. The pool was necessary because Katherine had been so badly bitten by mosquitoes that she was in dire need of chlorinated water in which to soak. After checking in, we ate dinner at a nearby restaurant that had an awesome tuk-tuk sign posted outside and then went right to bed, exhausted after a long day of travelling.
In the morning I awoke early (as usual) and set off on my own to find some street food for brekki. Before eating I stopped by a park to enjoy the fascinating sculptures on display there. While doing that I discovered a swimming pool that was open to anybody who wished to purchase a very cheap annual membership. And, of course, there were a bunch of people practicing Tai Chi. As I was about to leave the park, I heard music start playing all around me and everybody suddenly stopped and stood very still. It took me a few seconds to realize what was going on: the daily national anthem!
When Tony and Katherine had been trying to catch their flight from Tokyo to Bangkok a few days before, they'd missed it because Tony had forgotten his passport at home. They were able to purchase and take a different flight later that day, at which point they thought the incident had been put behind them. Unfortunately, however, Expedia then left them a message informing them that their return flight had been cancelled by China Airlines because they'd missed the original one. Annoyed at this reckless behaviour, we decided to visit the China Airlines office in Bangkok.
Getting there proved to be complicated because Google Maps gave us the wrong location for the office but eventually we found it. The woman at the customer service desk was extremely nice and promised Tony that he could get most of his trip refunded. She explained that, although the original return flight no longer had any seats available, they should be able to take a different flight within a day of it. That seemed reasonable enough so we left. But it then took several additional frustrating phone calls to Expedia before they were actually able to get the refund.
In the afternoon, after returning from China Airlines, it was very hot so we hit the pool. We had the entire thing to ourselves, which was nice. But there's only so long we could handle lounging in the pool and eventually it began to get a little chilly so we left for the Victory Monument, which is where I'd accidentally ended up when I caught the express bus from the airport a few days earlier.
By the time we reached it, we were rather hungry. The monument is littered with snack vendors so Katherine and Tony wanted to just nibble on snacks as we wandered around. Normally that would have been a problem for me because eating is a heavyweight operation for me thanks to Invisalign. However, at that point I had just completed the fortnight-long cycle for that particular pair so I decided to try an experiment. Removing them for the rest of the evening, I snacked with impunity. The freedom of being able to eat at will gave me quite the rush! The experiment was marred only when I managed to cut my thumb while peeling a local fruit.
After snacking, we took the skytrain to Bangkok's largest park and walked around for a while. Katherine bought a can of beer before we learned that drinking alcohol was not permitted in the park. I thought it was odd that beer could be sold in there if nobody was supposed to actually drink it. While Katherine furtively stole sips of her beer, we amused ourselves by watching an enormous crowd participate in an outdoor dancercise session. Although the participants were mostly female, there were plenty of guys too.
As darkness fell, we left the park for the night market just outside it. There was a wide variety of food available there, although they wouldn't take our money. We had to purchase coupons and then use those to buy food. I was initially skeptical about ending up with extra useless coupons at the end but Tony pointed out that they would happily refund unused coupons. I guess they must have instituted the system to isolate the handling of cash to a small number of people. The food stalls are arranged in two inward-facing rows on either side of a lawn filled with tables and chairs on which to eat. At one end of the lawn is a stage on which various musical numbers are accompanied by dancing. It's a very pleasant experience.
Once we'd eaten it was time to hit the shops. Bargaining was underway everywhere we turned. Tony and I eventually grew tired of walking around and sat down to rest while Katherine continued window-shopping. I noticed several old white men accompanied by cute young Thai women. That didn't surprise me but what did was a young European dude with tattoos all over his arms yelling at an overly made-up Thai woman for trying to steal his medicines. She returned them and slunk off, disappointed.
On our final day in Bangkok we decided to visit the zoo. I've been to many zoos in my life and this one was by no means among the best. However, I think I saw more interesting things there than I have any any of the others! At one point we were walking around when I spotted a strange lizard on the road being attacked by a crow. Never having seen a crow attack a lizard before, I stopped to watch. The crow seemed to be taking its time, waiting for a few seconds between attacks. The lizard, meanwhile, was desperate to escape and struggled mightily every time the crow grabbed it in its beak. Suddenly a young European woman walked by and, taking pity on the lizard, tried to shoo away the crow!
Some time later, we were looking at the reptiles when I noticed a snake that had just gotten hold of a mouse in its mouth. I think it had killed the mouse already and was about to swallow it. I hung around, curious to see what this swallowing process looks like, having never witnessed it before. The snake appeared to be in no hurry as it just lay there with the mouse in its mouth, tail sticking out, for a couple of minutes before finally getting down to business. Unhinging its jaw, it slowly stretched its mouth open even wider and very slowly used peristalsis to move the mouse into its gullet. Eventually the tail had vanished and there was a bulge in the snake's body that continued to move down. An amazing sight to behold.
At one point we walked into the sea lion show and found a troupe of monks in training. I'd never seen so many young boys in the traditional orange robes with their heads shaved! Despite being well behaved, they were by far the most playful monks I've ever seen. They seemed quite amused when I decided to climb onto a large dinosaur statue.
By the time we left the zoo, we were quite weary from walking around in the heat for hours and watching a movie in an air-conditioned mall seemed like a welcome change. Alice in Wonderland was playing in IMAX 3D so we saw that before returning to our hotel room. I had an early morning flight to Toronto by way of Tokyo and Washington DC so I asked for a wake-up call. As it happened, I woke up on my own right around when I wanted to, which was good because that call never came!
I took a cab to the airport, rescued my luggage and caught my flight, making it all the way to DC without incident. In DC, however, I had to go through the US CBP and the line was so long that I missed my flight to Toronto. The CBP officer was amused by the fact that I've had four different kinds of US visas but since I was just in transit he didn't ask me any questions and I was able to get on the next flight to Toronto easily enough.
