bangkok gem show

yesterday, diana and i went to the gem show - imagine a gigantci convemtion center filled with aisles upon ailes of booths selling everything from pretty ordinary, low quality rubies, sapphires, etc to extreme high end mulit million dollar gems -- like a 5 carat natural alexandrite - and then everything in between! i saw gems that i have never heard of before - much less seen - paraiba tourmaline ! who knew that existed? i saw things i had only heard about -- star sapphires andother lovely candy jelly bean colored sparkly gems.... it was fun... and work - don't worry - it actually grew tiring!

from the glitz and glitter to the irt and grime... after the show, diana took me to china town, where we ate on the sidewalk as cars, tuk tuks, motorcyles, and busses chugge by - as more customers came, more tables were set up, taking up more and more of the busy street corner! this was quite a scene. we ate barbqued toger prawns and a grilled snapper - all cooked on the grill on the sidewalk. fresh crabs, prawns, and other fish piled high on the table next to the grill. and then a tuk tuk back to kao san road with all the other sun burnt toursits. all of us looking for bargains on the steet stall lined road of goods.

today, some site seeing, and then tomorrow i am finally on my own! then to the (i hope) quieet north.