1st day in Bangkok

Today was my first full day in Bangkok. I took a ferry trip on the river, getting a general layout of the city. Here's some photos from the ferry:

In the above photo, you an see a small tugboat pulling all of those barges. The ropes from the barges were attached to the tug through a large Dr. Suessian hook at the bak of the tug. I tried to get a better photo of this feature but was unable.

Here's one of those boats that uses an engine on a stick as propulsion. They seemed to only be used for tourists. There are tourists everywhere.

After getting off the ferry upstream, I wandered around, finding this was (temple) that a couple of locals encouraged me to see. One guy said it would bring me good fortune.

Back at the ferry terminal, a local saw me looking at a map, trying to get oriented to where I was. He suggested that I go and see a couple of buddhas; one tall one that was only open for special occasions, and another one he called "lucky". I took a tuk-tuk (three wheeled vehicle, again mostly but not exclusively used by tourists); here's a picture from my perilous ride.

After going to see these buddhas, the tuk-tuk driver took me to a jewlelry shop. Apparently he gets a coupon for free gasoline if he does this. I told the jewelry store person I wasn't interested in any jewelry, and much to my relief he didn't try to apply any pressure (not like the tailors in Singapore).

Here's the first suggested buddha, a tall statue covered in gold (the local said that it was 50 meters tall...it was pretty tall but not 50 meters).

And a couple of shrines across the lawn from the buddha statue:

And the "lucky" buddha. The only other person here was a Belgian guy that I talked to for about 15 minutes. He gave me some advice on what I should see when I'm here.

Outside the lucky buddha wat the compound was undergoing some major renovation. Here's a tower from the corner of the property:

Back in the area of my hotel, I found this wat, shaped like a Chinese junk. Apparently a king built it to try and promote more junks visiting Thailand, since he seems to have profited from their trade. The shrine of the wat is located in the small building in the "stern" of the ship

And a view from the junk; it's located in a compound that also seemd to house a school and a monestary (based on who was in the courtyard).
Some miscellansous views of Bangkok:

Here's a shot of some stores selling images and memorabelia of the King and Queen. The Thais love their royalty.

An old canal (formally the highways of the city):

Shopping at night. At this night market (which was bing taken down today) there was a stall selling dried/preserved beetles, grasshoppers, grubs, and dessicated frogs. There's just some ingredients you'll never see on a menu at a Thai restaurant in America.

Today I had a catfish curry for lunch. It was very spicy, but delicous. The little round pea-like things are peppercorns, still on the stem. And the green thing at the front of the bowl is a piece of Thai eggplant.


And I had Pad Thai from a street vendor. I'm wondering now, hoever, if this is a real Thai dish or something that was invented in America/the west. like General Tsao's Chicken.