Close your eyes with me...

Close your eyes with me. ( I know, I know, you’re reading so not literally) Now… Close your eyes with me. Picture large rusted buildings. See the colorful Broadway type signs. Imagine tall polls wrapped haphazardly with hundreds of electrical wires. Now look at the street. It’s dirty. Newspapers and magazines everywhere. You can’t take a step without walking past a sleeping doggy and the cars… The cars are everywhere, vans and taxis and Toyota style vehicles w weird names.. THAT ONE HAS LIGHTS AND Music and there are tons of tourists stuck in the back… Where there aren’t cars there are scooters. Watch them as they dart through carrying business women, children and look an entire family. WATCH OUT! There’s no stop sign anywhere! You have to be careful. Let’s go into 7 eleven and grab some dim sum and watermelon flavored milk to relax.

Could you see all of that. Ladies and gentlemen I introduce you to Bangkok Thailand.

Arriving to the city was like no other I’ve seen. These were people with someplace to go! They were all bright faced and loud. Laughs rang through the airport and I knew I was in for a great time!

First things first THERE IS UBERRRR! So we swapped a friends SIM card out for better phone service on her end and began our adventure. (Thanks to T-Mobile for never making that an issue for me)

We stayed at A ONE BOUTIQUE HOTEL – near the hospital. It was important to say that for the location. You found this place down a long dark street… We call them alleys. Bangkok was full of them. Alley upon alley of darkness, doggies and people!

After a quick thought about a nap, we dressed and headed out. We learned that we could get a driver for 1500 baht (40 bucks) and he’d stay with us the whole day. By stay we mean drop us off at a touristy trap. The trap then slides him some schmoney for bringing us before he dips away and pick us up when we were ready.

This is where we first experienced the beauty of haggling! The price was 1500 per person and I don’t remember what we paid but it was less than that! We hopped into a long canoe type boat with an engine and navigated through canals lined w… huts..

Yes, guys! We were at the famed floating market!

When something caught our eyes the driver would pull up. The people at the huts had poles so when we caught their eyes they’d hook on to us and pull us in!

There were hats and scarves and Gucci bags! Shoes and paintings and more! Fight me here but… I’m pretty sure we could’ve gotten most if this on the WISH app… Maybe from these same people but this was a way more fun way of acquiring things that we didn’t need. We became pretty good at the haggle and more aggressive with our NO’s. At one point we even teamed up. A male traveler w us acted as my husbaaaaaand so if they offered me 2500 baht he’d say “you can pay no more than 1000” and he wouldn’t budge any higher and you know what… Every time it worked!

There is a small section I called the food court. They had Mango and sticky rice. Let’s stop there… THE MANGOS WERE FROM GOD! The insides were dark and the strings were almost nonexistent. The flavor was sweet and texture was smooth. As a Mango connoisseur I can tell you that these were the best I’ve tasted throughout the world!

Back to food. Mango and sticky rice was good but spoiler alert!! Sticky rice is basically rice and condensed sweetened milk which as a Midwestern woman I already enjoy! STILL adding the Mango was delicious! We ate fried pork and also coconut ice cream with ‘stuff’ on top all from the assorted boats that floated past us. We’d say “that please” and they’d stop and serve us.. In hindsight I wonder where any of those utensils and pans were being cleaned and what actually is the ‘stuff’ on top…

#ButDidYouDie

We visited a temple with sitting buddah maybe… #FunFact buddah is not just the fat man in the nail shop! He comes in many forms, standing, sitting, laughing etc. and each of them represent a different type of blessing!

Now let’s talk about the mall! MBK Mall is one of their larger ones… You say mall.. I say flea market but with everything you wanted! Our first stop was fish pedicures!

Yummy Yummy yummy those fish had foot in the tummy! I can’t explain the feeling. You definitely could feel the nibble. Sometimes it overwhelmed you like a tickle. We giggled made some friends from Romania as the fish made the tops of our feet smooth as… They already were! Lol! Still.. You have to do this. And don’t feel rushed. These things are everywhere. You WON’T miss out!

We explored the mall and found many cool finds like a personal karaoke mic – machine and a dessert that tasted like smores. Sorry that’s the best I got to explain because there were no interpreters! It looked like tacos and cheese and tasted like… Smores!

Also what is the fascination with hot dogs! They call them sausages. You know what didn’t go in my mouth.. These hot dog sausages lol! I was able to subside my hunger with a quick stop at Burger King where I got a curry bowl, yup CURRY BOWL! Thailand is pretty delicious!