The Capital of Thailand

Bankok. The plane touched down at dusk, and it was already dark by the time we got our pictures taken, our passports stamped, and our driverwho led us to a hot pink taxi with a 15-inch subwoofer in the trunk
and a gold statue of Buddha on the dashboard.

Driving on the interstate highway from the airport at night, you don't see much besides buildings, billboards, roadsigns and cars that drive opposite side of the road. Feels kind of like the states, in a way.Bankok has a lot of pickup trucks and SUV's. Thanks to the light
drizzle and the balmy heat, if you can pretend that the rows of billboards and roadsigns are in English, and not the beautiful Thai script, than you might feel like you're driving on an interstate around Miami or Jacksonville.

We stayed in a hotel in a sort of backpacker's district, with a money exchange booth, a tour package sales desk, and a tailor, just in case you want to get a suit, all conveniently located in the lobby downstairs.

When it was time to explore this neighborhood with its shuttered two-story shophouses, we stepped into the drizzly evening air to the smell
of grilled food and tropical rain. We passed by tarp covered t-shirt and souvenier shops, cheap massage and beauty parlors, gaudy theme
tiki bars, and hawker carts with all kinds of grilled goods, pad Thai noodles, and fresh cut pineapple, mango, and papaya. Pushy tuk tuk
drivers tried to wrangle us into their natural gas powered open cart taxis. But we had only one thing in mind: food. We found a night market on the far end of a park and tucked in.

After slurping down steamy bowls of beef soup with angel hair rice noodles, and curry soup with chicken, egg, and peanuts, we meandered over to a brilliant dessert cart with bowls filled with things all the color of a candy store. We spooned gobs of a flan-style custard cooked in a pumpkin squash, and pudding with sweet sticky rice, drenched in coconut cream, chased by a rich green milk tea. This place is a foodie's paradise.

We're off to see the weekend market and the imperial palace today. But I'm most looking forward to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the in-between meals. Then goodbye, Bankok, as we board a sleeper car on an overnight southbound train tonight, headed for a bungalow in a town called Krabi.