EXHAUSTED IN BANGKOK

It was a very long day and I need to get up early tomorrow for the River Kwai trip so I won't write much tonight other than the briefest details. I'll fill those in at a later time.

The morning was spent touring the Royal Palace - I've never seen so much gold in my life! We returned at noon and I had my "welcome drink" at the Lobby Bar - it was just watermelon juice and Sprite. I then went up to the revolving observation deck on the 84th floor and took some photos.

After that, I went in search of a shop to transfer another full memory card to CD, having to make my way through the blocks of garment wholesalers. I stumbled across Pranthip Computer Mall - seven floors of computer, electronics, and DVD wholesalers with dirt-cheap prices. Definitely the place to buy anything you want if you're a techno-nerd. While there, I had a root beer float at A&W.

I eventually made my way to Central World Plaza which is a massive shopping mall; I didn't buy anything except a "Full Monty" (everygthing but the kitchen sink) fruit smoothie at a stand.

By this time, I realized that I'd never make it back to Baiyoke in time to go on the dinner cruise so I decided to take the Skytrain to Sukhumvit Road in order to check out the nightlife. I walked into Nana Plaza but was intimidated by all the girls trying to grope me so I left. By accident, I discovered Asia Books and then made the mistake of entering. I ended up buying four books about living in Thailand.

I took the Skytrain back to Chit Lom station, took some photos at a roadside shrine before the smoke depm the joss sticks began making my eyes water. I walked up to Big-C where I bought some bottles of milk to drink in my room and finally came the rest of the way to the hotel by tuk-tuk. I arrived at 10:30 only to find I'd just barely missed a call from Tim. I called her back on the bathroom phone as that's the only one that works good here.

That reminds me - my cellular service hadd been erratic in here. When I try to send an e-mail, it keeps resending if the signal gets dropped while it's sending. But all the resends seem to have gone through. It's very noticeable as my emails to this blog are all accepted and I probably have some multiple entries which I'll need to fix very soon.

Well, it's now 12:30 and my pick-up time for tomorrow's tour is 6:20. I think I'd better try and sleep now...

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