Bangkok, Thailand

Jason & I went to Bangkok for our 12th anniversary. I managed to plan it as a surprise! We stayed in a gorgeous boutique hotel in town near all the "soi"s and Sukhumvit (another street). Turns out Soi is another name for street. And, most streets are named Soi.... something or other! With the help of our friend, Suzanne who planned most of our trip for us and the infamous Luxe guide (which is fantastic, by the way), we saw the sights, had massages (cheap!), shopped, and ate amazing Thai food in the largest city in Thailand (12 million people)!

The highlight was definitely the bicycle tour through the narrow streets of Chinatown and into a long tail boat down the river (Chao Phraya) along different canals into the plantation areas outside the city. Plenty of monitor lizards all along the river. (We were missing our friend (the lizard) who used to inhabit our pool... only briefly.)
We stopped off at several temples (wats) along the way. There are hundreds of Buddhist Temples - they seem to be around every corner. Here we were able to see one of the famous temples (Wat Arun, Temple of Dawn) from the water and the Grand Palace (A walled city built in 1782- no longer occupied by the king who now lives in a palace in north Bangkok instead. Too many visitors, I guess?!) Some of the houses along the water-- houses on stilts, women washing clothes & dishes, cooking, kids swimming (with the lizards, I suppose!) and enormous catfish. They're not allowed to fish in front of the temples. So, wisely, the fish tend to live there- and are fed quite well. There's also a famous floating market- which we skipped this time.

Pictured top to bottom, Chinese temple, Buddhist alter/shrine around an enormous tree, doorway in one of the tiny alley ways we traversed on our bikes, and monks walking.