Nirvana

It is 42C with the humidity. I have a huge plate of delicious pad thai and a big bottle of Singha beer in front of me. Someone is selling scorpions on a stick but I don't anticipate needing dessert. The Reclining Buddha might want to scooch over, cause I may be entering Nirvana meself.

Greta left this morning, which was sad. On the other hand, I have had a day to move around Bangkok at my own insane pace. I started with a full-day river pass to travel the Chao Phraya River at whim. So far, I have scaled Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn), was pummelled into sweet submission with Thai massage at the Wat Pho massage college and had some serious time communing with the Buddhas (including the Reclining Buddha) at Wat Pho. Now I'm in Banglumphoo on the infamous backpacker/hippie strip. They make an f-ing wicked veg. pad thai here. My short term future looks like a trip to another pier to check out the 24 hr. flower market then maybe the Asiatique night market for moar Thai food and possibly a katoey cabaret.

Dinner last night was tricky. I found us a $24 Cdn/ night hotel on the airport & skytrain route but there's no good eats in the 'hood, so we hit the skytrain & found many of the good eating areas are also good protest areas. We ended up eating Indian food in the basement of a shopping centre in a protest area because my blood sugar hit the point where I was past fucking around. It was excellent Indian food, too. Much better than the Papa's Beard green tea tea cream puffs we tried after. I'm not one to throw food away but, whoa, nasty.

On the topic of food: Greta & I have declared we would cheerfully trade all Canadian flavours of potato chips for Thai flavours. We would really only miss dill pickle but we would gain: spicy basil, ginger/chili/lime/basil and nori seaweed. They already have sour cream and onion. If we could add Mexico's lime chips and some enterprising person would create coriander chips then I would even be willing to sacrifice dill pickle. Our favourite snacks are deep fried spicy seaweed with sesame. If I can score a small cardboard box before bedtime, then I'm mailing some home. They rock my world!

Please, someone tell Cecily that I spent "One night in Bangkok looking at muddy old rivers and reclining Buddhas." She'll totally get it and have a chuckle.

Tomorrow I get to eat in India! Be still my piggy heart.