Moopin' Around

We are back, back again in Bangkok...but this time, with a visitor! Our dear friend Steve-O - who we acquainted ourselves with on the long, treacherous lurching bus ride through Laos - happened to swing by this crazy metropolis before he leaves back to England today, so we were able to reunite with our British mate! Since Steve had yet to properly see Bangkok, it was only natural that Lauren and I bring him to only the best sights. Clearly, our first stop was crazy Chatuchak Market!

Now...if you look closely at this picture (I guess you don't need to look close because it is pretty obvious) you will see a lovely mural of the King Rama IX plastered on the side of the building! One of my favorite things in Thailand is that a majority - and I definitely mean more than half - of the buildings here have ginormous King murals on multiple sides of their building. This one happens to be in Queen Sirikit Park, which is situated just outside the chaotic consumerism that is Chatuchak Weekend Market!

Another note...the King is currently in poor health - I mean, the man is going to be 80 years old this December for heaven's sake (which is a national holiday and a vacation day for moi!). Let's hope for a quick recovery because supposedly, this country is going to descend into widespread craziness if he passes away! You can also get jailed for saying anything bad about the royal family, so I am going to refrain from telling more. As much as I would love to spend seven years in Thai jail, I am going to keep quiet! King Rama IX is not only the world's longest reigning monarch (take that Queen Lizzie!), but he has done loads of community development work. One example, he is helping out poor hill tribes earn money by promoting local artisan crafts. What a King!

After navigating the maze that is Chatuchak Market (which, miracle of miracles, I did not buy one thing at yesterday!), we brought Steve to another Bangkok trademark - Siam Paragon! I think I have mentioned that Paragon is by far the nicest shopping mall I have ever been in - Gucci, Versace, Armani, Dolce and Gabbana - they have it all!

They also happen to have a most delish gourmet food market - which much to my delight, I discovered yesterday! With a large supermarket, bakeries, fruit stands, restaurants and stands selling local delicacies, it is a cross between Whole Foods and Kowalski's. Heaven, I'd say! Littered with free samples, the three of us spent hours browsing everything and got much of our dinner for free! Having a built-in radar for finding sickenly sweet sweets, I discovered the Thai dessert roti. Oh man...after turning the dough so it is literally paper thin, they fold it up into a circle, fry it on a large griddle with butter, then proceed to chop this flaky delight up into pieces, put it in a cute little Tupperware container and drizzle it with milk and sugar. I don't know what else to say but perfecto!

After finally leaving Siam Paragon following our 2-hour eating samples binge, we headed back out to Silom - where we continued the market extravaganza with the night markets! Bootlegged DVD's, designer clothes & purses, lamps, shoes, belts, clothes, food - you name it, they've knocked off the originals! This is a really fun area of the city to browse, not only because of the shopping (I am slowly learning that Asia is one big consumer society!), but because Silom is the area where people go out, party at night and all that jazz.

Which means...knowing Bangkok and the fact it's pretty much the sex capitol of the world, Silom is one of the centers of the sex show industry. Enter the moop. The moop is a new term - coined and hopefully, in the future, trademarked by Steve, Lauren and I - to signify the presence of what they like to call, a ladyboy. Wherever you walk, you are accosted by men offering you invitations to shows featuring scantily clad women - ping pong shows, banana shows, sex shows...I think you get the picture. However, you may find that many of these "women" are not in fact real "women," but instead, ladyboys or more properly speaking, transvestites. So, everytime we saw one, we'd say "Moop!" Now, there are different varying degrees of the moop - dependent upon the degree of the ladyboy - but all you need to know is that the moop looks something like this...

Overall, we clearly had quite a lovely day in Bangkok showing Steve around! Now, it is Sunday once again, and our agenda for today? Maybe a little pool (the rainy season is gone!), a little massage (there is always enough money in the budget for a massage), definitely a work-out, then relax before the school week starts all back over again tomorrow! So far so good at school, here's to another good week with the kiddies!