How to get your watch stolen in bangkok:

Ride a tuk-tuk to the zoo.

Well you probably don't even have to do that but thats how I did it.

Yesterday was one of the best days I've ever had.  The girls and I made our way to the Dusit Zoo and pretended we were on a third grade field trip for about 6 hours.  It was wonderful.  I didn't get to ride an elephant but I did get to feed, kiss, and be hugged (and slightly violated, much to the amusement of the elephant trainers) by the massive creatures.  I'm convinced that elephants are smarter than most people.  We faced our fears and took a tuk-tuk to the zoo, the driver was pretty honest with us the entire time about our fare which was really nice.  However he did like my watch enough to ask if he could try it on (just to see if it fit, of course) then he offered to buy it from me and somehow I don't think I got reimbursed for it fully.  Oh well, I bought a new one on Khaosan road for about three bucks.  Zoos are strange places, it seems to me that I shouldn't be satisfied (And I don't think I am) with seeing a solitary animal in a cage rather than seeing how it actually interacts in it's natural environment.  I'm convinced that my interest in how people interact with each other is directly tied to my interest in animals and that when I see an animal in a cage at the zoo it's very similar to watching a person in jail, it's just not the way it's supposed to be.  We are just "smart" animals right? 

After the zoo we went out and explored the nightlife around Khaosan road.  It's entirely different than anything you can see in the States (not that much is that similar, but this is just another STRIKING difference).  At about 7 o'clock trucks pull up to every bare stretch of sidewalk and start unloading chairs, tables, coolers, blenders, and people to set up miniature bars right next to all of the street vendors that seem to be the only constant on the streets of Bangkok.  Taxis, tuk-tuks, and people from every corner of the world flood the streets and hop from bar to bar and makeshift shop to makeshift shop buying everything from knockoff designer clothes to light up alarm clocks and wind-up dancing robots.  If there ever was a place to just sit and watch people this is it.  Everyone seems to be selling something and I will admit that most of the t-shirts are very very cool and very very funny it's quite overwhelming to not be able to walk more than five feet without being stopped by a "MISTER MISTER!" or a "Come look, you like."  But maybe that's part of the appeal right?  I mean I am looking for a new experience, and this is certainly new.

Today was spent at the Grand Palace which was built in the 1700's and is home to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, a 60cm tall statue of the Buddha carved from pure jade.  It in itself isn't the most impressive thing in the entire world, however the devotion that people have to it certainly is.  The temple is massive and the buddha sits on a shrine about 40 feet off of the ground, everything in the room is either gold or a very dark red and the walls are painted in a single magnificent painting depicting different stories from Buddhist manuscripts.  Outside of the temple itself are hundreds of huge pillars, statues, and other buildings that are simply made for decoration and presented as offerings and respects to the teachings of Buddha.  The Grand palace also holds several government buildings (I'm not sure exactly which ones but I believe parliament is somewhere in there).  Simply amazing, that's all I can really say.  After the palace we ate a late lunch at a janky little market and walked back to our neighborhood.  We found a travel agency, one of about thirty on our block, and booked our tickets to Kolkata!  It's nice to finally have the tickets in our hands after a couple of fiascos trying to get tickets previously.  We tried booking them in the airport and almost got ripped off royally, we tried booking them online and our reservations kept getting cancelled, we emailed a couple of travel agencies and never seemed to hear back.  But all of that is over with and Kolkata HERE WE COME!  It's about 10:30 on sunday the 13th as I write this, and we're going to fly out on thursday at 3:00.  I'm so excited to be done with being a tourist and get started with what I set out to do.  Serve, live, and love with people.  That's what I think this trip is going to come down to and I am extremely excited.  I'm going to stop typing now and head to bed.  Michelle's got the right idea, she was in bed about an hour and a half ago. 

Goodnight and sweet dreams Bangkok.

Namaste Friend.

oh and if you'd care to see some of my pictures so far they're on my flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27395614@N03/sets/72157622219004137/

they're not all there because uploading times have been kicking my butt but there are definitely some keepers in there.