Bangkok Week 217 — Mika's Photos

A weekend in Trad, and then a long-awaited week off in Bangkok. Nothing like just chillaxin' at home, reading a good book, getting some good visas... You know. The usual.

Only at Krispy Kreme Indonesia: a mosque doughnut! A true Ramadan delite!

In Trad for the weekend, at the temple to prepare for the annual remembrance ceremony for the grandparents. There were 14 trays of food to prepare for the monks.

Two of the trays of food, being offered to the many Buddha images in the temple.

And the ones for the monks. The food sits there in front of them while they chant. If I were them, my stomach would be grumbling the whole time.

The temple has carpets now.

Waiting for the monks to arrive.

A colorful way to solicit monetary donations.

Starting to gather for the ceremony... But still waiting for the monks to arrive.

Lots of friends and neighbors came to join.

After the ceremony, it's the traditional releasing of the fish.

This year, they could only find snake-like creepy fish...

...so they very thoughtfully got me a turtle instead. This guy was not at all anxious to get back to the water.

After the monks finished their lunch, it was our turn to eat.

And the event culminates by tossing coins at all the friends and family for them to collect. Apparently, I threw too far...

Marouy was very excited to see some of the guests when they came back to the house afterward.

A monumental backlog of customers at Top Sound!

A delicious vegetarian dinner: Tom yum goong (with shrimp), basil fried squid, salted egg, salted fish and my all-time favorite curry with bitter flower buds.

On Tuesday when I went to the US Embassy, I was greeted by an entourage of protesters.

They were demanding that the US Ambassador to Thailand resign, because they were mad about Thaksin's recent visit to the US.

Return of the baked goods! I wasn't sure if the poor oven would remember how to bake cookies, it had been so long.

But it seemed to remember just fine.

Hopefully the stash will last long enough to sustain us until my next vacation... Ha ha ha.

Check out all the designer glasses that they make these days for 3D movies! Cha-ching!

We bought the young son of Long John and Rose, to send to Steve and Teresa for their new baby daughter. Hope he makes it safely to California!