2 Nights in Bangkok

I have two busy days at the Bangkok Hospital. I will spare the details, but it is cutting edge migraine treatment not approved by American Medical Association. Last night I made a trip with the Poopatanapong family to Asiatique. It is a teak factory converted to a two acre shopping center of touristy shops. I have been to so many of these shops over the years that there is the same old, same old. The largest ferris wheel in Asia is located there. It is named the Mekong. During the Vietnam war the Mekong River and Mekong Delta were heavily fought for to control shipping of war supplies. The river flows from Thailand through Laos and Cambodia and finally out to sea in Vietnam. FYI...Vietnam means: Viet is a Chinese word meaning wondering far and nam means south. So the country settled by Chinese hunters wondering south in the early AD. Wow, all of that from a shopping center name. I was able to find a couple teak shoehorns that are 28 inches long. I have two but love the style and convenience of having them. There was an elephant in the shopping center and the belief in Thailand is that if you crawl beneath an elephant it brings good luck. Ten minutes after I went under the elephant a young girl wanted to sell me a miniature pekingese puppy for ten dollars. They sell in Thailand for around 2-3 hundred dollars. I debated for 20 minutes but it would have gone over well with my wife. We have two ignorant cats(Tipper is good for only Dalton and the other cat claws and cries to come in to use the cat box)and one absolutely crazy dog along with a little dog that was thrown from a car. This puppy would have fit in my pocket, literally! Was that LUCKY? There were fish tanks at the market which you paid 4 dollars for 30 minutes to sit and have a thousand small fish eat the dead skin from your feet and legs. It took two hours in traffic to get to the hospital today. The distance was 22 miles. THere are many types of transportation but there are still many, many delays. Any time somebody is late, the excuse is "traffic". Even if it is not traffic, people still use it as their excuse. A traditional mode of transportation is the Tuk Tuk pictured below. Street vendors galore. There are thousands of vendors set up on the sidewalks of Bangkok. Most of what is sold are knockoffs, counterfeit merchandise.