People believe that spirits share the space that humans inhabit. When a house is built, a similar-looking smaller house is built and placed at a prominent location on the property, to house the spirits that were displaced by the humans moving in. This is done to pacify them or else bad luck will befall the new tenants. Many accidents plagued the building of the Erawan complex in this photo. These events stopped when this spirit house was built and dedicated.
Khao San Road, the backpacking mecca of Bangkok.
Jasmine vendor. The smell of jasmine is just heaven!
Fish vendor. The smell in the meat market is NOT heaven!
The absolute BESTEST iced tea in the world is at this particular street vendor in Bangkok! Drinks are put into small plastic bags that look like mini grocery bags, they stick some ice and a straw in there, and voila! (Edit in 2007: sadly this site has been developed with four megamalls on each corner so my cafe vendor is gone :(
Iced coffee to go!
Boat Lunge-ing 101. Boats take you up and down the canals and river for a scenic view of Bangkok–for a mere 10cents each way. They come in at a sideswipe angle at high speed. The boat never comes to a complete stop and people just lunge on or off. I have no idea how they don’t fall right in the water and get crushed.
This is at the Reclining Buddha. Keith was smitten by the wats, pagodas, and temples of Asia and we visited as many as he can get us to. These structures are actually resting places for prominent residents and monks.
Young monks were waiting with us for the boat to go down the klong (waterways).
Riverside dwellings along the Chao Praya