The second full day in Bangkok started with another cool shower and some shopping. Tracy and I followed Iain and Jen to this massive computer store (by "computer store" I mean "they sell everything, but they also sell computer stuff in a really pushy and in-your-face way"). Tracy and I finally found new ripoff sunglasses, then while Iain and Jen shopped we hung out in the food court. We received a phone call on the phone Iain lent us from an unknown number. Now, I don't want to get into too much detail here, but it was this guy Mark we had met the night before, a Scottish guy on his year-long honeymoon trek with his wife, Claire. Basically, he had a bunch of Laos money (currency exchange: $1 American equals approximately 9500 Lao kip) that outside of Laos becomes completely worthless, so Tracy and I purchased it off of him for approximately half of its value, which was nothing and will (again, if this is legit) allow us to live like absolute kings while in Laos (typical cost per day for average living, including accomodation: $8-$15 US).
The funniest part, however, was when we received this call- we told the guy to give us 24 hours to make up our minds so we could check out the conversion and make sure we were getting a good deal and his story checked out- we were sitting in the food court of this computer mall. When we told him where we were, it turned out he was just downstairs- and this place was a good 20 minute cab ride away from where we had met him the night before, at our hostel the night before. So after a quick "wait, did he follow us here? Is this how Brokedown Palace started?" we told him to come up and meet us. We ended up having an absolutely fantastic half-hour conversation with him- he and his wife were heading to Australia then New Zealand next, so we were able to pass on recommendations we heard and we exchanged email addresses to get any recommendations from him regarding New Zealand if he's there before us.
Afterwards, Tracy and I decided to do our first thing alone on this trip, which was to take a tuk-tuk back to our hostel. Of course, our first time doing something without Iain, and the guy doesn't know how to get our tuk-tuk to our door. He ended up dropping us off at the end of an alley and pointing down it. Luckily, we found our way back and didn't end up sleeping in a ditch.
Okay, stupid blogger and stupid computer and stupid blah blah blah...it's not allowing me to post any pictures to the site. I'm just going to tell stories for now and hopefully we can add the pictures later, sorry about that. I know you'd love to see how we're still glaringly, pasty white, but it'll have to wait another day.
After our trip back to the hostel, Tracy and I took a quick walk to the river for a riverboat tour. Pretty sure we technically got ripped off, but I don't even care, because I loved it so much. Now this, we have a million pictures from that I'd love to share, but stupid blogger...the conditions some of these people live in is unbelievable. They're literally shacks barely hanging over the river by some wobbly wooden poles, and I'm not quite sure how they haven't already collapsed, but it was also strangely beautiful. We also got to see a mini version of the "floating market"- women in their little boats, floating up to our boat, to sell us stuff. We did say no, all until she pointed at the beer and asked if we wanted to buy one for the driver. Well, we can't turn down an offer like that, and we certainly couldn't let our driver drink alone (poor alcoholic driver) so we both got beers for ourselves, as well. We also paid to feed some crazy-ass fish, which apparently gave Tracy flashbacks to Smith Mountain Lake. Not a lot of similarities between Thailand and Virginia, but apparently Tracy found their common ground.
After our clearly very stressful day, we needed to relax, so we got traditional Thai massages for an hour (roughly $5). That will definitely have to become a more regular part of our trip.
After that, we were like two floppy dolls, so instead of another night out in Bangkok, we grabbed a night bus back to Chanthaburi, to spend the day here with Iain and Jen before we leave them for the next 2 1/2 weeks. We're going to attempt to drive their motorcycles or
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