turtles, buddhas and raw sewage

Alone at last! a blessing and a curse. I am still in bangkok, due to bad planning on my part. but i leave tomorrow. today was actualy my first day of sightseing. I took the chay praya water taxi to the grand palace. I know the water taxi sounds romantic, and it is somewhat, until you realize that you are basically riding in raw sewage - keep your mouth closed! but it is a nice way to get around. diana and i took one yesterday to a place called turtle mount - a grave yard of sorts with moats and man made little mountains with spirit houses mounted here and there. the thai spirit house is suppose to house the dead spirits - traditionally, they look like thai temples, but at this grave yard, diana and i had a few laughs looking at the various styles of 'houses' that people choose for their loved ones to spend eternity. ranch houses, western style houses (as in the western hemisphere, not the american wild west), condos, and one magnificently large, spanish style villa with a chain link fence! and there are turtles (believed to symbolize long life, and also sometiems buddisht mmokns ay be reincarnated as a turtle) swimming in the little stream. and you can feed them! children are running around, families picnicing - and NO other farang (foreigners).

today, i took the water taxi to the grand palace and the surrounding area. the palace adn temple grounds are phenomanal with towering, glittering spires, covered in green, gold, orange mosaic. quite sparkly! i did the stupid tourist move and forgot to wear a skirt, and had to borrow one from the temple - like all the other dumb toursits. and boy - toursits! i got there as like 4 bus loads of japanese tourists arrived - and i hate to say it,m but they were pretty obnoxious. the same phenomenon that bothered me in kyoto -- the constant piture taking! can't we just look and appreciate a fine work of art, an historical artificact, must we take a million pictures, not only of the thing itself, but of me and my buddy in front of said thing. so, i got tired real fast. but i did get to see the famed emerald buddah (jade, actually). i then walked into a BIG nationalist thai protest or rally -- i assume it was related to all the problems with the prime minister. it was something else. the smart part of me decided to get out of it pretty quickly, cuz, who knows how it would wind up! but all the people were waving thai flags and yuelling and cheering and one guy was making a speech and getting the crowd all riled up!

its still early, i am in the internet bar that i have been frequenting, i guess i will get a beer and watch the parade of people walking along kao san road -- the extreme euro trash, dumb american and australian hang out. here you can eat insects, get your hair braided or dreadlocked, drink to your hearts content and buy enoough hippiechick wear to last you , well, to last you until it all falls apart!