Days 3 and some of 4: Wat next?

This blog has me constantly writing inside my head. I can't look at anything, go anywhere, or eat a bite of food without trying to find the words to tell you all about it. I bought a little diary for 17 baht to keep in my purse so I can get the sentences down and out of my mind. Unfortunately, there is so much that I'm forced to leave out.

I have to tell you about where I am writing from. Lemetayel, an Israeli travel company (some of you may have been to their store in Dizengoff) has a travel center in Bangkok right near our hotel. There are several other Israeli travel centers on this street that serve Israeli food like mallawach and Israeli salad and house backpacking Israelis. They have free internet. It's a home away from home away from home. I am enjoying the chance to speak Hebrew. I am thinking of Michelle and feeling nostalgic as Barry Sacharov is playing in the background. Boi habaytah...never!

I have to admit that wats (temples) bore me a little. They are definitely impressive and brilliantly colorful, but my travel buddy Leeor and I would so much rather wander the streets tasting and smelling, and we have been doing plenty of that. There is nothing more fun to us than getting lost, getting hungry, finding duck soup (my new obsession), bumping into an amazing market, and then somehow finding our way back. We will go to all the importants wats and see all the important buddhas, but nothing thrills be like a stroll down a bustling street.

Yesterday began with more delicious coffee and pancakes. I tried to ask about the fermented honey, but really the people here barely speak English at all so if I can't point at what I am trying to say, there is almost no way of communicating. We decided to take the river taxi to China Town and check out the markets. On the way to the pier, we stopped and got some roti at a place called Roti Mataba and ordered freshly fried Indian roti with a little bowl of this outrageous chicken curry. It was like liquid spice. We somehow made it to the river taxi without a third meal and hopped on. Leeor wanted to buy sunglasses and a watch because we have had no way of keeping time since we got here, even though it doesn't really seem to be an issue. The China Town markets there are full of plastic crap, but the kind you don't want, and they weren't open to bargaining, so we left. China Town was not so much fun. I did buy a little bag of tiny deep fried salted anchovies which my mom and Debbi would have found completely irresistable. They were fried to a crisp like potato chips with eyes and tails. Addictive little things. Every minute I think about how much my mom would absolutely love this place, despite the dirtiness of the city.

We took a taxi to Sukhumvit, Bangkok's red light district, to try the street market which accroding to the book is a good place to find knock offs and good bargaining. We managed to find a pretty awesome fake tag and decent ray ban knock offs. We bought a couple sticks of barbequed meat that blew our minds. They really get the balance of flavors perfectly right here. Feeling satisfied with our purchases and a tired of frolicking in the heat of Bangkok, we decided to get a second massage. Best $15 I have ever spent. I am never leaving went through my head several times during the 60 minutes of absolute bliss.

Trecking on, we found another duck soup place, this one totally different that the first. We saw the golden brown ducks dripping in their own savory fat in the window and we were forced to sit down. The certified hole-in-the-wall, seemlingly very popular establishment serves fresh ramen egg noodled topped with the softest and juciest slices of duck meat and perfectly rendered skin with a deliciously sweet sauce. Some hot red chilli flakes brought the dish to a state of perfection. After our second bowl of heaven, we hit the road.

We went to Chabad for Shabbat dinner, which was packed with Morroccan Israelis. It was totally surreal. It felt like anywhere else in the world. If I were running a Chabad in Bangkok, I would make it look like Bangkok. It was colorless and looked like a big mess hall. The singing was nice and the fish curry was pretty good, but we couldn't wait to get out of there.

We got another good night of sleep and were up at dawn. This morning we booked a trip at the Israeli place to go to Kanchanaburi for a two day excursion, which we are both nervous and excited about. Hopefully we will be with nice people. It's a great price, and really, it should be amazing. I'll try to write down everything we do. We are going to spend this afternooon in Ayutthaya, a once extremely powerful old city full of beautiful ruins. I will try to write more later, but it may be a couple days until I can write again.