Talad Rod Fai (train car market)

Our flight from Nepal to Thailand left us with a 10 hr layover in Mumbai, we watched a movie, tried to nap, and it went by quickly.

Nesting.

Attempt to snooze. 

We landed in Bangkok on Thursday into incredible heat, topped off by the fact that we were both sick. To make it worse our hotel had no AC! We slept for almost an entire day in order to recuperate in time for the weekend. We really wanted to check out a market we heard of called "Talad Rod Fai" or Train Car Market. It's a pretty new vintage market set in an old train yard, everything from vespas to spring rolls were on sale. It was a hipster paradise. We picked up some sweet new duds including overalls and crop tops, had a couple beers, and a delicious chocolate oreo shake. 

It was really interesting to see a couple thousand Thai kids idolizing 1950's north american pop culture, James Dean, Elvis, Marilyn and all the usual suspects were all proudly on display. Converted VW vans made up the bars and simple yet effective clothing racks and good old tarps on the ground sold the goods. Luc was in a bit of an automotive heaven, American kids souped up vintage American cars, Asian kids do the same with Asian cars. There were 70's corollas everywhere and even a few lifted Samurais, very awesome.

It's been by far the best night market experience we've been through and left us wanting to start a Winnipeg version.

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Drool worthy Moped.

LWB lifted samura! yes!

The captain and crew.

Used shoes, glasses.

Vw van shake bar.

There was some new stuff for sale too, laptop sleeves. We took notes.

Sweating in the heat, enjoying a cold beer.

Vintage stuffed animals and toys, cool Ford van.

Hats galore! 

Sadly this is our last real great experience of Thai culture. We fly out of Bangkok in less than 6 hours! And are expected to arrive home around 2:15 tomorrow. We'll probably post one last rap up when we recover from the jet lag. 

We're very excited to see all our friends & family, return to our dearly missed feline, and get back on our bikes! (and Ginger of course won't stop describing in detail every dress that she misses). Thanks to everyone for all the positive feedback, we miss you all terribly and can't wait to see you.

lot's of love from afar.

The way down

I'm sure you're getting sick of mountain pictures, but here's the last from our way down.

Interesting pottery.

The trail was dug down a good 4 feet, crazy.

The "foothills". 

Just because we didn't go there doesn't mean we can't celebrate like we did.

To do list.

Lake Phewa, this is one of my favorite pictures.

Yes, these poor ponies are carrying rocks, up a mountain.

The sun coming through the clouds.

Down filled rain clouds.

I think this rope is a touch short, but cute cow.

We made it! and didn't even break an ankle.

Celebratory Indian food. (note the lipstick, two weeks in the mountains...)

We have a few more posts lined up, when we get a chance we'll put them up.

We are now in Bangkok, it's sweltering hot, but we've checked into a expensive hotel with AC and a pool to live out our last few days of homelessness.  We'll see you soon, we're home on the 26th!

Bangkok Layover, Ice Skating!

Our flight into India left us with a day to kill in Bangkok, we ventured into the city and wandered around for a while, till we found a skating rink on the top story of a shopping mall. What better way to spend our last day in Thailand than to do something so Canadian as skating.

Skating in shorts is strange. Asians learning to skate is one of the cutest things ever.

Luc trying to navigate. Succeeding, sort of.

Crazy city!

Harley Davidson mugs, For Uncle Russell. Thought you might like that.


Soon, India!

Zombies attack in Bangkok.

Let me start by giving you a piece of advice, avoid at all costs 23 hour bus rides whilst having diarrhea. Our bus ride from Ranong to Bangkok spat us out right by Khaosan rd. at 5:30 am, just as the sun was coming up. Khaosan rd. is a world famous party strip, riddled with street vendors, bars, and people trying to sell you everything from a suit to a fortune reading, "hey friend, nice mustache, you need suit? cheap cheap for you best in all asia" " you lucky man, I see, I know your mothers name, how? I'm not selling a thing friend" We walked onto this street to a scene out of a bad zombie movie. People passing out in the gutter, stumbling around trying to remain upright, puking, garbage everywhere, music still playing. Most of them didn't even look like they were having fun anymore, and anyone coherent enough to speak, really wanted to talk to us. We hadn't pre-booked a place to stay, why bother, its Bangkok right? Wrong. It was very booked up so we wandered around for hours before finding somewhere decent. And then we proceeded to sleep for the entire day. And then Luc woke up with a fever, and so we took his temperature every hour, put cool cloths on his forehead and neck, and waited for it to pass. And eventually it did. When we were finally able to explore khao san in the daylight, things weren't quite so scary. It was pretty much just the Osborne street festival on speed that never ended. We did a little shopping, a little eating, and moved ourselves into the Villa Cha Cha (http://www.villachacha.com/) which was just across the way from our first hotel, and for only double the price, had a pool!

Khao San basking in the normalcy of daylight.

Khao San still looking alright.

Most importantly, we got our flight issues resolved! We took our tushes down to United and spoke with a very nice Thai lady that was more than willing to fix the problem. It shall also be noted that we in no way needed a Visa. Luc and I have learned the valuable adult lesson that sometimes all a big problem takes to solve is an equally large sum of money. We'll be home APRIL 25th.

Highly coveted new pants.

We ended up eating almost all our meals at this amazing vegetarian restaurant, Ethos (http://www.ethosnet.biz/), it was cozy, the music was nice, it always smelt lovely, they have the best chai in town, and the food was really really good. The owner even had tips on where to find free yoga classes.

At the end of it all, we had settled in pretty nice, once we had managed to avoid the zombies like pros. But Laos was calling our names with the promise of organic farms, so off we went.