ECB, Food Festival, and the Chao Phraya River Boat (July 28)

 Lizbeth and I both woke up early this morning.  We sat here in the living room drinking coffee and visiting...a little later, Erica woke up.  Joshua and Thalia were still snoozing ... but they were awakened by THE loudest noise I think I've ever heard!  Erica screamed (that was NOT the loud noise...although she definitely had a great scream)...and we went running to see what it was.  She, Lizbeth and I ran and got dressed, I grabbed my camera, and out the door we ran.  The excitement was over...it was a transformer!!!  (ah ha!  My fascination with the wires is for a reason.)  The only way it affected us was I wasn't able to post my earlier blog because the internet was knocked out.  We still had power, but no internet...for just a little while.

At 11:15 a.m., church started.  Lizbeth, Erica, and I went...Thalia WAS going, but her friends went to the earlier service...she saw them leaving to go to Siam Paragon (mall) for lunch, so she hopped out (of the cab) and went with them.  I LOVED this church!  You looked around and saw every nationality on the planet (probably a rather large exaggeration), all worshipping God together....I just was overwhelmed...

From church, we walked to Siam Paragon to get Thalia...then took the BTS to Central World and back to the food festival.  We shopped around for what we wanted to eat...and then had a grand time eating it...and I had to have the coconut ice cream in the coconut again for dessert!  This first photo of the...not sure what/who she is, is located at Central World.  She warranted a photo!

 Look at this screen.  They are all over the place...it's like a gigantic TV....I do mean they are everywhere...not just at the mall, but all over the city.  It's crazy!

 I've been reading about Jim Thompson...and silk... then I saw this store in the mall...so I went in to have a look around.  I didn't buy a silk scarf for 2600 baht, but I did buy a 95% cotton black T-shirt with a beautiful elephant on the front for 950 baht!  I love it...

 This is looking out over a large open area at Central World...I was standing at the food festival to take it.  As you can see, we had some rain today.

Joshua had to work some this morning, so he came and met us here.  He roamed around the food court, ate, and then we were deciding what to do.  Erica, Lizbeth, and Thalia decided to come back home...so Joshua and I went to another stop on the BTS line...'Victory Monument' one he hadn't been to...and we went to explore.  It wasn't a hit...

 This is Victory Monument..not sure what the victory was... but they sure built a huge circle around it!

 See another HUGE screen...actually you can see two screens in this photo.

 Another tribute to their king.... I think there were four around Victory Monument..

 Now, this is gross!  In one part, there were places to eat (street food) on both sides of this.  So, you're seeing the backs of the line of food stalls... and this river? creek?  not sure what it is...was so dirty.  You can't see the trash until the two photos below....

Is this gross or what?  There's a monitor too...I think that's what it is instead of the Komodo Dragon...although they are definitely here too.

 This was part of the area around Victory Monument that was really nice....

 Look at this little McDonald's!!!  Joshua thinks they might have just sold ice cream type foods...but we didn't go look....

We headed back to the BTS, and then headed for the Chao Phraya River.  Joshua wanted to check out the pier...I took a picture of the map at the BTS station to show us the way...although we really didn't need it.

 We were looking at the boats...so many different kinds...and then the map of where the boats go.  At that point, we decided to hop on one and ride it to Chinatown....one of the places on my list of things to see in Bangkok.  It cost 20 baht to ride the boat there.  (Remember:  30 baht is close to a dollar...)

 (This is like the boat we rode in)

 I thought this one was so cute~  I think it belongs to one of the hotels along the river...

 On the boat...

 I saw this spire and just KNEW that it was China town... wrong.

 Ah-ha!  THIS is Chinatown...we walked all around it...taking some photos along the way, of course.

 I was impressed with their fruit.  Everywhere, they had leaves stuck in to make the pile of fruit prettier!

 This is probably one of my all time favorite pictures of Joshua!

 This guy was moving these HUGE blocks of ice...

 and he was taking the ice in this building...

 I saw this..and told Joshua it looked like roasted bat..but he said it was a duck...

 TEXAS in Bangkok's Chinatown???

 After walking around Chinatown, we headed back to the boat..

 I took a few pictures along the way.  It's just so different to see such slummy areas right beside these magnificent hotels...

 These guys were fishing...

 This is River City...and I want to go back and check it out!

We got off the boat, headed to the BTS, and made our way to a Starbucks, a grocery store, and then home....

I'm excited to go back to the pier and do some more exploring along the river!

Another great day in Bangkok!