Bangkok Week 18 October 30, 2008 Straight out of your wildest dreams, we give you Dream World! And more stubborn baking attempts. And other surprises. View fullsize For those of you on the edge of your seats for a week, this is how the banana bread turned out. View fullsize The biggest, least-greasy success so far. View fullsize A traditional dessert, with ice, jelly pieces, and of course eyeballs. View fullsize This is what happens when you thermally shock bananas. View fullsize Saturday morning breakfast: banana bread and the famed green oranges (yes, they're ripe). View fullsize Saturday morning traffic while waiting for a bus. Imagine a week day! View fullsize Waiting... and showing support 1 week too late. View fullsize The (luckily AC) bus we took to Dream World. View fullsize Welcome to Dream World. Just walk across this really long bridge, please. View fullsize Someone got a little lazy on the L and just grew a Christmas Tree instead. View fullsize Now that you've crossed the bridge, wait 10 minutes on the shuttle bus to drive you another 2 miles to the entrance. View fullsize At least the shuttle buses could see. View fullsize A special parking garage for motorcycles. And monks. View fullsize Dream World has earned a reputation for being a little similar to, say, Disney World. Keep that in mind. View fullsize The Tickets for Thais. They permit one ride on each of the attractions that line the permeter of the ticket. View fullsize Still cool and dry, but ready to go! View fullsize The park had a tree-lined Main Street, with gift shops and story-book houses. View fullsize I guess this is something you don't see at Disney. View fullsize The urinals, color-coded, one for each day of the week of course. View fullsize And we're not so sure what this farang is doing there. View fullsize An overwhelming abundance of *real* sunflowers! And a beanstalk! View fullsize I've never felt so embarrassed for trees before. View fullsize Yeah, I guess we're not so sure what this guy is doing here either. View fullsize Great. Dream World. I'm thrilled. View fullsize The most interesting roller coaster of the 3: formerly in Brisbane ... View fullsize ... and formerly with completely different trains. The dangling feet were new in 2007. View fullsize Not too large, but not too dizzying either. View fullsize No lines (yet). Walk right on! View fullsize Some last-minute second-thoughts! View fullsize A celestial-themed monorail? Sound familiar? View fullsize I think Disney's was *much* more structurally sound than this one, though. View fullsize Yes, not boding well already. View fullsize We should've taken this as a sign. You can buy Waterproof for only 30 B. View fullsize And some of those smarties did. View fullsize From above, it looked far tamer than it really was. View fullsize Exhibit A: Before ..... Exhibit B: After. View fullsize I thought I'd been clever by covering my front with my arms. View fullsize Come on down, kids! Knock Out Winnie the Pooh! View fullsize Yet again, this was probably another sign ... View fullsize ... that we foolishly chose to ignore. View fullsize I guess we weren't quite as foolish as some others, though. View fullsize Which robot is more convincing? View fullsize Dream World even has its own Space Mountain! Copy what? View fullsize Colorful crepes. I bet these kids were bummed we'd gotten there first ... View fullsize ... this kid wasn't bummed, though. View fullsize A scenic view of the pretty coaster and the colorful bumper boats. View fullsize I've learned since moving here ... View fullsize ... that no time is too inappropriate to use an umbrella to block the sun. View fullsize Bummed by the mark he left. View fullsize AAH! We were both freaked out by the same ghost! View fullsize Chillaxin' with the new family. View fullsize They do love their topiaries here. And this one loves you. View fullsize A tree that makes even the coolest kids excited. View fullsize The gingerbread house seems to be more of an ice cream house in the tropics. View fullsize Every Disney knock-off needs its castle. View fullsize Actual, legitimate cable cars! You don't see those much anymore. View fullsize To tickle or to bite? That is the question. View fullsize The walkers' reactions say it all. View fullsize Not the first time I've shocked kids with my feet. View fullsize We were in a Giant's House, I should mention. View fullsize Although apparently we weren't so sure what we were doing there. View fullsize Note how the hedges look possessed. Or stoned. View fullsize Dude, it's the Thai Mount Rushmore. View fullsize The requisite speedy mouse, who apparently likes his donuts. View fullsize With a nice bamboo backdrop. View fullsize Here's one ride we didn't try. View fullsize Finally boarding the cable-cars, which allow you to ride either round-trip, or one-way (of their choosing). View fullsize Ahh! I only thought about the structural stability now! View fullsize The park is located right next to rice paddies. View fullsize To its defense, it really is quite green. Note the housing development in the background. View fullsize It's unclear why there was a cluster of giant fruit on the ground. At least they had mangosteens! View fullsize The requisite help-I'm-being-swallowed-by-a-giant-concrete-head shot. View fullsize They one-up Disney with the bumper cars. View fullsize A clever sign, I thought. View fullsize Goofy the Garbage Can is "Close for Temporary". Sorry. View fullsize Here you can take an elephant taxi, or just feed one. View fullsize This family chose the latter. I bet the elephant didn't mind. View fullsize I've *always* wanted to do this on a harp. View fullsize Come to Dream World! Where you, too, can be arrested and shackled! View fullsize And then a giant hand came and crushed us both. View fullsize You see? No need to travel all the way to Cambodia now. View fullsize If you can't do it to the real tower, may as well do it to a 3-foot replica. View fullsize Aww! Wasn't the Colosseum so cute? View fullsize They had a climate-controlled green house designed to simulate "Romantic Europe" (wherever that is) ... View fullsize ... but something tells me their more romantic bicycle had gone missing. View fullsize Some familiar flowers! View fullsize Look where we went!!! View fullsize Oh pine trees. How I miss thee. View fullsize Our last stop was Mexico. Turned out to be a bust. View fullsize Occasionally we see these fake drumsticks at the food court. View fullsize What you can't see is that they even have a fake skin layer. View fullsize 4 months of mail from Lopez arrived! Thanks, Steve and Teresa! View fullsize All the goodies, and then some. View fullsize Surprise! It's a visa! View fullsize แคนาดา here we come! View fullsize The banana cake made to celebrate. View fullsize And a mouthful of teeth lost during battle. With a pomelo.
