Making peace with the tuk tuk

So yesterday morning as I was taking my daily cold shower after yet another awesome run, I was thinking to myself how I really want this trip to be about making peace with Bangkok. This city can really suck the life out of you and you should move along quickly and get out as fast as you can. So I shared this with Wil that I wanted to find a way to keep these people and in the love and not want to yell explicatives at them. Then a very nice gentleman approached us as we were on our way to the Chinese Market. He explained that in the Thai paper there were elections starting and the Thai government was paying all the tuk tuk drivers to take toursts to the Tall Buddha, the lucky buddha, and the marble buddha. For $20 Baht! We were excited. I reminded Will of my earlier comment about finding peace and we immediately thought maybe this was the way..... sonn after a tuk tuk drove up and we happily jumped in. The driver took us to all the sites, then we asked him to take us to the TAT (the government travel agency) and the next thing we knew we were pulling up in front of a scammer travel agency. Now he was up to the old tricks. Then he took us to a tailor (reminiscent of the day before) we went into the tailor and actually had a wonderful conversation with the owner about chinese medicine and chakra's and hot yoga (I foudn six different locations in Bangkok to do Bikram's) anyway he did not even try to sell us a suit so now I actually want to have asuit made by this man and his team of tailors...maybe on the next pass through bangkok. Anyway, after the trip to the tailor we came out and said NO MORE stops take us home and he did not fight. And he did not pout. A grown man pouting is something I cna truly do without on any day let alone on my vacation.

Once we got back to our guest house we revised the day. We took a very long walk and found a few parks where loads of people work out (mostly chinese as it was in the chinese section of Bangkok) we also found a skate park and men playing a version of soccer with a smaller hard ball and a much smaller field ( actually a court). It turned out to be a great day and we enjoyed ignoring all tuk tuk drivers as they drove closely and commented "were you go?"

We headed out this morning to the chinese park and had a great run. They also have a whole area with tons of practical workout stations like log lifting and stuff. Great workout. We were going to work on sprinting but had nothing left in our legs. We have not been eating enough protein as most of it looks pretty nasty. After you have walked through the market and witnessed all the dead or nearly dead stuff and also noting the lack of refrigeration, (is that a word) then you tend to not want to eat flesh. Smell is also a factor but I wil spare you that description. Will is jonesing for a turkey sandwhich right now. It seems that everyday after we work out we talk about food for at least an hour. We have this in common, our love of food and great meals we have enjoyed.

We have also come to know that we share a love of the hanes white v-neck tshirt AND we wear the same size small! And, we both brought two on the trip! We can share clothes! Yesterday we both wore plaid shirts. Weird.

Last night we came up with a new plan that avoids the beach in thailand and has us going to Burma on Thursday. We will be buying our tickets today and landing in Rangoon on thursday. Then we will head to the beach shortly after that. The beach in Thailand is great but not as great as in Burma because no one is on the beach in Burma, you have it to yourself. So, we are making adjustments to travel plans as are needed.

Other noteworthy facts to report today....
I stepped in a pile of Dog shit on the way to the fitness park. Bummer. And after working out this morning we were sitting at the new joe guest house eating breakfast and watched a cat take a shit right next to us. We were laughing our asses off! Every time we see a cat (which is about every five feet) we always think about taking one home to Betsy and John and Lisa.

We are having a great time and seriously budgeting our time and money to get the full experience for the best possible price ... Yesterday we offered prayers to the buddha for safe travels and to our families and loved ones (we did not pour water over our heads though as so hopefully they are just as valid).

Thats all I have for now. Perhaps Will has a comment of two...

Nope, he is busy instant messaging through facebook to Melissa...

willandcody