Never eating catfish again......

Hi all! So, we decided against the Thai kick boxing because I was feeling a little under the weather. So far, neither Keith or I have gotten sick, but I just wasn't up to spending the evening in a crowded, steaming hot auditorium, where people are screaming and betting all around you. Instead, we headed out to Bangkok's "Red Light District." If I can give you any idea what that was like, all I can say is that as our taxi drove up here, the first thing I hear was, "oh.....vanilla!!!" Young Thai men were on Keith like white on rice...."Wanna see the ping pong show, man???" I had to jump in and say, "no.....I'm his wife...what do you think?" They did not care one bit. So, we walked down this street for a bit and it was one strip club after another, small ones, with the doors wide open for all to see and gawk at. We had heard that some really crazy stuff goes on inside these places, as only one can imagine. We went down to this area just to say that we did. Then, we went by the famous Mandarin Oriental hotel, which was nothing to write home about.

Onward to today....we woke up early around 7:30 am to make it for the opening of the Chatuchak weekend market in the northern part of Bangkok. We actually decided to stay in Bangkok one more night to go to this thing, since it's open only on weekends. For the shopaholic, this is heaven. You can buy ANYTHING at this place. It's an open-air market (so, it was scorching hot and I nearly passed out..seriously) and contains over 15,000 stalls!!! Clothes, jewelry, curios, food, animals (dogs, cats, birds, fish, chickens), art, antiques....anything. After walking around for 3 hours, we decided on two framed sculptures and a painting, which we had shipped back. And you can haggle, which is part of the fun. It was so hot...I cannot describe the heat here....it's unlike anything else.

I had my first experience today with Thailand's famous swating toilets. We imagined this to be our only option, as far as using the restroom, but most places have proper standing toilets. Not here. I had to take a picture of this thing for all to see. I didnt even know which way to face in the stall - towards the door or the back wall?? You just squat on this thing that's lower to the ground than out toilets, with your feet on the rim, and just pray your business goes in the right place. Afterwards, you have to flush everything down with a pail of water. Hygenic, huh? No paper goes in the toilet either. Also, most Thais dont even use toilet paper. They just have a hose that they spray on themselves. Some public restrooms dont even offer toilet paper, so I now carry my own in my purse. So funny.

Later on this afternoon we travelled about 30-40 minutes outside Bangkok to a Mekong Catfish fish farm. Basically, people go out to this place with their families, have drinks, have lunch, and pay money to catch ENORMOUS Mekong Catfish, that can be as big as 100 kg (220 lbs). We sat in this hut while a guide casted huge fishing rods with a rice powder ball on the end with a hook, kind of like bait. Within seconds, these huge catfish bite, and the guide handed over the rod for Keith to reel in. Basically, you're guarenteed big fish to catch. It's pretty gross and sad to me. After getting the fish, you can see where it had been hooked many times before. After seeing this, I've vowed never to eat catfish again - what gross fish.

We left soon after, pretty upset, because Jonas had hooked us up with this guide, and we realised that he (Jonas) had charged us double what the true cost was. I phoned Jonas up and said we werent paying this amount and that we knew he had tried to scam us...thinking we're stupid tourists. Well, the actual prices are there for all to see. It's funny, being a tourist, you realise you're getting ripped off quite often because you just dont know any better. Well, not this time. And after we had spent 4 days with him fishing in southern Thailand. We were really upset. Anyways, we're getting smarter...slowly.