Bangkok Week 33 February 12, 2009 Kanchanaburi and its famous "River Kwai"! Suki! Grilled cheese sandwiches! Cupcakes! View fullsize The deluxe double-decker bus we rode out to Kanchanaburi. View fullsize The caravan of MTEC buses turn a corner. View fullsize Downtown Kanchanaburi, just after school let out. View fullsize 1/4 of the boat that served as our dinner "cruise". View fullsize The 1/4 of the boat in which we ate. The "boat" was really made up of 4 boats tied together. View fullsize A view of the mountainous scenery, from the boat's dock. View fullsize Three proud MIT alums. View fullsize The teeny little motor boat that pulled the entire dinner cruise. View fullsize A tropical sunset. View fullsize The beginnings of dinner start to arrive, though most prefer to chat or sight-see. View fullsize Upstairs on the quarter of the boat that has an upper deck. View fullsize Note all the floating houses in the rear. View fullsize Evidently, the sun is still setting over flat, floating buildings. View fullsize MTEC's director (unwittingly) surrounded by the gals. View fullsize A so-called 7-11 boat pulls up and makes a surprising number of sales. View fullsize Enough food for 2 hungry researchers? View fullsize The B 40-million mansion of a German man. View fullsize The doctor and his faithful research assistants. View fullsize A good example of the tug boat restaurant system. The boat we were on was at least 4 times the area. View fullsize Evidently, not everyone was comfortable with the floating restaurant concept. View fullsize The next morning, the view out our hotel window. View fullsize And a view looking up the river. View fullsize A very scenic breakfast. (Recognize the shirt?) View fullsize Mmm, Thai breakfast! View fullsize The indoor portion of the restaurant. Those strollers are 2 of 3 -- a set of triplets came along, too. View fullsize A morning haze still lingers in the background. View fullsize Flowers float in the hotel reception area. View fullsize A full view of the restaurant and its scenic outlook. And lots of blue MTEC employees. View fullsize Making our way down to the water. View fullsize A look downstream. View fullsize Another scenic shot. View fullsize There were no roses to stop and smell, so we had to improvise. View fullsize Yet another scenic shot. (Get used to 'em.) View fullsize Our row of rooms, behind the hotel's rather murky pool. View fullsize Even the stray dogs appreciate the scenery. View fullsize Some strange orange cone flowers that grew like a fungus on this tree. View fullsize The hotel's "garden view". Clearly our room's view was superior. View fullsize Welcome! To our lawn. View fullsize Why, it's more flowers. View fullsize The hotel's official sign. Did we mention the historic River Kwai? View fullsize Enjoying the view, and holding increasingly melted chocolate in my hand. View fullsize The hard worker and a ghost with a camera! View fullsize Pickable coconuts! Egads! View fullsize Down on a little "dock" next to the river's edge. View fullsize More Asian-style flower shots. View fullsize Lots of little kids came along. This one ignored the camera and just kept plucking petals from the bush. View fullsize Ooh, now some yellow flowers! View fullsize And a wider shot. View fullsize Some nice two-toned purple ones. View fullsize Dancing along with some performance of a traditional Thai dance. Duh. View fullsize The second sunset. View fullsize Preparations underway for the wild-and-krazy karaoke dinner. View fullsize Down in the dinner area: the karaoke stage is in the background. View fullsize This shot taken during the only fraction in time when no one was belting out a tune on stage. View fullsize The woman who kindly made us vegetarian som tum. View fullsize The aforementioned vegetarian som tum! View fullsize Playing a balloon-busin' dart-throwin' game. I won 20B at an MTEC coffee shop and some baby powder! Alright! View fullsize Traditional, chromosome-shaped donuts being made at Saturday's breakfast. View fullsize The donuts in their final form. (These are typically street food.) View fullsize Tasty, but disappointingly un-sweet! View fullsize Toast! And jam! And eggs! For breakfast! Woah! View fullsize On the bus, heading back to Bangkok... View fullsize ... but not without first stopping at a huge souvenir store. View fullsize Have you ever seen such cute candies? Airplane candies? Didn't think so. View fullsize And they served food. It was clean. OK. View fullsize Crossing the bridge back into Bangkok. My first time on the other side of the river! View fullsize A view of the river dividing the city... and a never-completed hi-rise in the background. View fullsize Washing fresh vegetables to make Suki! View fullsize Tofu here comes in logs. View fullsize Cracking in the eggs! View fullsize Whoo! Home-made suki! Home-made dinner! View fullsize Come on, dish it to me! View fullsize Tasty, despite his unconvinced look. View fullsize They say it's polite to slurp your soup, right? View fullsize The next day, using the cheddar cheese from Bracebridge... View fullsize ... to make grilled cheese sandwiches! View fullsize Using the oven outside keeps the electricity costs down. View fullsize A grilled cheese sandwich, floating in space! View fullsize Order's ready! View fullsize Mmm, melted! View fullsize Check out the oh-so-beautiful grill lines. View fullsize The Thanachart-Scotia Bank ad on the skytrain. The farang man is chasing the Thai man out of his own country. View fullsize That's right, purple ice cream! (It's supposedly taro-flavoured.) View fullsize Chocolate cup cakes... View fullsize ...baked to use up the rest of the birthday frosting. View fullsize Bad news taking shape on the horizon!
