Chinatown made the other parts of Bangkok we'd seen seem mellow by comparison. Narrow streets with shop goods and street vendors taking op their share. Countless pedestrians, stray cats and dogs, motor bikes, vendors with carts, bicycles and, yes, cars and trucks all are negotiating these narrow streets. With everyone going in different directions and passing within mere centimeters of eachother Peter and I were shocked that we never saw one accident.
That night we called "River View Inn" our home. It was run by some very friendly Thai staff and was old but clean.
Inside our room.
The view from our room was... well... interesting. Peter loved it!
Dinner for the night was some delicious and spicy street food. The price was right too - around two dollars with Peter's fish.
Can you spot Peter buying his fish? (he is behind the man in the yellow shirt)
Our dinner. Not bad for 40Baht!
Peter's delicious fish!
After dinner, we hit up a 7-11 and bought some local (and not so local) snack food. We were a bit disappointed by the selection - nothing too crazy like Japan - perhaps it was just the limited selection. However, what we did manage to find was tasty (although I am not so much of a fan of the sushi flavoured chips - the spicy ones were much better. Peter enjoyed his seaweed and crab sandwich and I enjoyed a new flavour of tim tam! Yum tim tams!
After this I took a picture of our money - reminiscent of a similar picture we took in Japan.
That night we took advantage of the bar on the top floor of our hotel and enjoyed some slightly unusual drinks: Peter ordered a lemon grass concoction and I ordered a ginger one (and holy it was gingery! Huge chunks of ginger were floating in it which was a bit much by the end).
(can you see the ginger?)
One of several riverboat dinner cruises that went by - blaring cheesy music at the tourists on board. A tourist attraction we can totally live without. :)
The highlight of our rooftop visit was our buddy the wall lizard. He came right out on the table and ate some of the spring roll crumbs Peter was enticing him with - however, the camera scared him away big time!
On our way to the train station we decided to hit up one of Chinatown's biggest temples and visit another Golden Buddha.
Here is Peter sporting his new hat, a Chinatown purchase.
Here is the story of this Golden Buddha:
The Golden Buddha was cast sometime in the 13th century
and is an excellent example of the gracious Sukhothai style that is
still very much in favor to this day. At some point, it was covered in
plaster and lacquer, most likely in an attempt to hide the valuable
icon from thieves or looters.
The disguise was so good that everyone apparently forgot about what
was hidden beneath. A member of King Rama III's court had the statue
moved to Bangkok and installed in a temple near where the Oriental
Hotel is today. That temple fell into disuse and was completely
abandoned around 1931.
The true nature of the Golden Buddha wasn't discovered until it was
moved to its present location at Wat Traimit in 1955. When the image
was being hoisted into its new home, the ropes broke, dropping the
statue. Some of the plaster was chipped off, revealing the gold
underneath. 
Unfortunately, we didn't purchase our train tickets early enough and they were sold out so we ended up spending another night in Bangkok. This time we saw a bit more of the nightlife scene!
To be continued in Part 3!
