Shopping on the Town

We went out shopping with the other family from Holt, Rob and Michelle, Saturday night. We had originally planned on going to what is called the "weekend market", which is supposed to be a must-see in Bangkok, but decided that it's location in proximity to the red-shirt protesters was too close for comfort. We decided instead to go to the Emporium, which is on the other side of town. When we got there we found out that the Emporium is the name of a huge department store that is connected to a mall. This place had everything, mostly name brands we see at home. We were hoping for more Thai culture shopping, but instead we saw Columbia, Hilfiger, Channel, etc. but it was a good experience. We found a few bookstores, and was hoping to get some children's books in Thai/English for Abe, but the books were all in English only - go figure. This was definitely a place set up with Western tourists in mind. One thing that was different from the US malls, this mall had a grocery store in the middle of it. We were walking through the Emporium, past the very expensive linens and things, and then all of a sudden we were in the middle of this market place that had fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. It was crazy - and pretty cool! We found out that there was a sky train station on the top floor of the mall, and we were wanting to go to the Night Bazaar again, so we decided to see what the sky train was all about. There were many booths set up around the walkway to the sky train, and there we finally found some books for Abe. The books have both Thai and English in them - exactly like the Zaccheus book we sent him for Christmas. We bought about 500 Baht in books, which is about $15.00 - and we got a lot for the money. We hoped on the sky train, which is like an above ground subway, and went one stop. It was much quicker than a taxi as, like I said before, traffic is very heavy here. After the sky train we had to go three stops on the subway, which was extremely clean and so not what we expected it would look like. We all agreed that the sky train and subways were much safer modes of transportation (the taxi drivers scare us!). We went and ate Thai food at the Night Bazaar, and it was pretty good. We all did some shopping, and sweated a lot! The temperature was 98 degrees with a heat index if 113! Not that I ever really wanted to know what 113 degrees felt like, but now we do! :)

We were all very hot and tired by the time we got back to our hotel. We talked a little bit about our schedule for Sunday - the big day - and dedided to turn in.

Good Night!