Day 23 - Final Day in Bangkok

We started the day at 8:30am by hitting the expansive markets of Bangkok's Chinatown. First, we roamed the food market. The place is chaotic with stalls everywhere and is filled with colorful spices, vegetables, fruits, meats and seafood as well as many items we confess we had no idea what they were. There were huge bags and bags of "something fried". We were told it was "fish maw" - whatever that is. In addition, many stalls are cooking food on the spot to sell to passersby. Watching how some of the food was being handled by shoppers we decided to give that option a miss.

Next were the flowers where the stalls expanded for as far as you could see. Below you can see roses, marigolds and orchids. This is a small sampling of all we saw but hopefully you can get an idea of how pretty the scene was. The primary religion of Thailand is Buddhism where they lay offerings, very frequently flowers, at the alters of the many buddhas around the city. Marigolds are the primary flower used for these offerings as they are considered lucky in Thailand.

The final market offered more general merchandise including clothing, toys, make-up and about anything you can think of that could come from China. It honestly felt like a never-ending Dollar Store - so this area was not our favorite part of the day, but we definitely got the full experience of the Chinatown market. We have added a few photos and a video below to capture some of the unusual (to us) things we witnessed at the market today including a baby boy in a milk crate on the back of a bike, employees eating their lunch on the floor of the store, and a motor scooter (of which there were many) driving through the crowed market.

Our next stop was at "The Chinese Temple". It was really ornate and colorful with all of the red lanterns. Also, we were lucky that monks were holding a ceremony which was a dedication to ancestors. After visiting all of the temples, we have learned that Thai people are deeply spiritual, religious and superstitious. If your birth year is deemed to be unlucky this year (it changes every year), you would bring offerings of flowers and maybe food to the Buddha and pray for mercy. We saw a number of people doing this in the Chinese Temple and there are always stalls in the temples selling flowers or bags of rice that people can use for their offerings.

Our final visit was at the Jim Thompson House. This is a house that was built by an American architect in the 1950s. He fell in love with Thailand while visiting the country when serving in the military during WWII. The house was a conglomerate of a number of smaller houses that he carefully sourced and merged together. He had a great love of Thai antiques and art, and he passionately curated items to create a stunning home that is now a museum. He also incorporated lovely rainforest-like gardens throughout a rambling courtyard. Jim Thompson mysteriously disappeared in 1967 while visiting friends in northern Thailand. He went for a walk and was never seen again. Our tour guide told us it was his unlucky birth year!

Fun facts for today -

• The legal limit for the number of people on a scooter here is five! We did see this occasionally, more so, we witnessed lots of examples of kids in parents' laps and many laden down with huge boxes on the back (Once we saw about 50 dozen eggs!) Usually no helmets are involved (except maybe the driver). Clearly, a versatile form of transportation!

• Our guide, Jim, told us that most people in Bangkok (not sure if this applies to the rest of Thailand) do not cook in their homes. They work long hours and six day a week, so it is much more efficient to grab street food for all of their meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). I guess that explains the prolific amount of street food here!