The City of Angels

In "The Land of Smiles"; "The City of Angels"; a city with 90 percent Buddhists, you would expect to see many kind, lovely souls in Bangkok. Indeed, we met several along the way - strangers who greeted us with warm smiles, shopkeepers who wished us well and asked about our trip and friends who took time off to show us around. But it was also a daily ritual to fight errant taxi drivers and tuk tuk drivers; to remind ourselves not to be too friendly with strangers (re: stalker episode) and to just watch our backs and bags. Southeast Asia is really not for the faint-hearted except Singapore - which our Dutch bike tour leader called the "101 to Asia".

Of course we had our fun too. Stuffing ourselves with Phad Thai and Tom Yum almost daily; shopping (Platinum!!!!!!!); tossing coins into the bronze bowls at Wat Pho without understanding what it meant (I now know it's to acquire merit); massages (too few!) and biking through the streets of Bangkok.

Laa gorn, Siam. It was as good as it gets.