Bangkok Week 199 April 19, 2012 Fare thee well, Bangkok! View fullsize On the train heading home from the airport. Excited to be back in hot hot Bangkok? View fullsize Mum's new favorite fruit - the mangosteen! View fullsize Having a jolly good time eating kilo after kilo of the purple fruit. View fullsize Eye-poppingly good (or spicy?) Indian food. View fullsize The next morning, we went off to the old part of the city to find Ban Bat, the only surviving community that makes monks' alms bowls by hand. View fullsize Some of the works in progress. The bowls are made out of 8 pieces of steel that are welded together, and then the weld seams are hammered flat. View fullsize Through one of the shophouses, you could see hundreds of works-in-progress stacked up. View fullsize One woman shows us how the seams are hammered. View fullsize Mum and dad pose with a big bowl, after purchasing a smaller one. View fullsize Next stop: Wat Traimit, home of the Golden Buddha. View fullsize The Golden Buddha itself sits on the 4th floor of the building. View fullsize The buddha is the world's largest solid gold statue. It is 3m tall and weights 5.5 tonnes. View fullsize Reflection of one of the temple complex's roofs, off one of the temple's mirror tiles. View fullsize Lunch break at a Japanese restaurant in the Tokyu department store. View fullsize Who looks more weird. The person trying on the glasses, or the guy reacting to what he sees? View fullsize Can't pass by the colorful gelato store without stopping for a scoop. View fullsize Trying out the pool in our condo. Nice water, even nicer breeze. View fullsize Someone finally arrives home from work. View fullsize Arriba! Dinner at La Monita, one of the best Mexican joints in town. View fullsize Good home-made chips and salsa. View fullsize Yikes! A deep-fried burrito! View fullsize After 3 weeks of patiently waiting, we find a tiny window of opportunity to go try the much-hyped Shibuya Honey Toast at After You. View fullsize Shocked by what it looks like! Now, how to eat it? View fullsize With a solid team effort, the entire plate is clean within 60 seconds. View fullsize Waking up the next morning, unsure of what just happened. Oh wait, it was a Thai Massage! View fullsize Mum blends in with the locals and their parasols. View fullsize Grr! Angry that we had to fight for a table at the peak of the lunch hour. View fullsize I knew he'd like this store. View fullsize Too many choices! Which pastries to pick? View fullsize Wow! What a good selection of pastries! View fullsize As mum demonstrates, our condo's pool is pretty deep! View fullsize Quite nice to be able to swim right in the middle of the city like this. View fullsize One final dinner -- at our favorite Vietnamese hideout. View fullsize Hmm. Is this leaf *really* a vegetable? View fullsize Mum was so intensely digging into the food that she left a lasting impression on her poor spoon. View fullsize Real tiramisu! Making up for the sad excuse of a dessert that they had in Bali. View fullsize Looking through some of the photos from the Bali trip. View fullsize The next morning at the airport, we couldn't help but notice a warning to all passengers, put out by the Airports of Thailand. View fullsize A sad lot: one imitates the statue, one smiles excitedly, and one weeps. What's going on here?
