Greetings from Bangkok
Mood:  happy
Topic: Asia Trip
Wow, what a difference! We arrived from Delhi to Bangkok four days ago and have been so surprised at how incredibly modern and awesome Bangkok is. Everyone said to just stay a short time in Bangkok and move on to see the rest of the country, which we will certainly do, but for now, we are loving being in a big, modern city with all the fabulous city living and ammenities. Bangkok rocks! We've been touring on our own via the skytrain, river boats, foot etc. On Sunday, we are taking a bus to Siem Reap in Cambodia to spend a few days at Angkor Wat while we wait for the monsoon transition to occur in the south of Thailand. We are feeling happy and relaxed and so relieved that we traveled to India first. We feel prepared now for the challenges of traveling and look forward to the adventures ahead.

{Molly here:} Hi. I think that if we had come here straight from the US we would not have appreciated Bangkok. We would have thought that it was not much different than a US city. Since we were in India first, we can see the differences very well between NY, Delhi, and Bangkok. As Marisa was strolling along looking at the modern architecture and clothing, she looked to her right to let pass a street vendor selling fried cockroaches, crickets, and other larvae. Some things are different.. although I must confess that today I had a starbucks coffee and a dairy queen cone. : ) no larvae for me.

Today we also went to the famous Patpong district that is notorious for the Thai sex trade. We did not want to miss it, yet had no interest in seeing the scene.... so we went during the day and got the idea. We are staying in Khao San area which is famous for hippy backpackers and other travelers. It is a huge party scene and there are bars built into VW vans selling cocktails on the street. It is a comfortable location that makes everything easy. We look sheepishly at the street vendors selling food because everything is some kind of meat or seafood.. that is if it is not a roach. We just learned how to say that we are vegetarian today from the girls at the travel counter. Now we are ready to go!

We miss you all.

xo,

Marisa and Molly