I know; what the heck does posting about vacation have to do with selling real estate? Plenty! We work so hard, making sure the details are taken care of, developing and fine tuning systems to make things go more efficiently, etc. Sometimes we are on call 24/7 it seems, even during family time. You just never know when a client will find the right house, or when an offer on a listing will come in.

That's why I'm on vacation...to take a break and truly unplug, so that when I get back to work I can be fresh and ready for anything!

In addition to my work, Jim has also been working just as hard if not harder for the past few months. We are 2 fried crispy critters, that are out to get chilled. It's working, and we're loving every minute of it! :)

Well, Jim is not feeling well today, so I basically had all day to work on the photos and catching up. So here you go, and now I've got to head off to take care of Jim (he's fine, just a headache and slight fever...he is feeling much better and we're going to have room service tonight...you know he must not be feeling too good if he's okaying that idea!). I'll post more photos tomorrow.

Back to our last full day in Bangkok, here's what we did in a nutshell (detailed-lengthy text version is below photos):

Floating Market Bangkok

Jims Authentic Thai Lunch at Floating Market, the lady made it straight in the wok on her boat!

Delicious Pad Thai, topped with cilantro.

After the Floating Market, we went to ride elephants (sorry, no photos for that one, we ran out of film!! But you'll see plenty once we get to Chiang Mai photos). Then we went to see the Reclining Buddha...hard to take full pictures due to the structure of the building, but here you can see his head.

Reclining Buddha

That night, we headed out to downtown Bangkok to see what that was like for our last night before leaving for Chiang Mai:

Downtown Bangkok at Happy House Beer Garden

Thailand Feb. 13 (Grand Palace, River Cruise)

Today we toured the Grand Palace, one of the destinations from 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. We felt a bit overwhelmed by all of the temples, and realized we probably should have had a tour guide to lead us through and explain the significance of each temple. But it was fun to explore on our own, and wander through at our own pace. The temples are beautiful with intricate details.

After the Grand Palace, we wandered through the streets outside of the gates. We didn't know quite where we were going, or what to expect but we heard there was a river cruise we could take. The problem was, we didn't know which way the river was. So we walked quite a few blocks in each direction until we found it. There were so many vendors lined along the streets, people asking us to buy this, buy that, take a taxi, etc. We didn't want to buy anything, we just wanted to find the river! We finally found it after about 45 minutes. A lady came up to us and asked if we would like to take a river cruise. We asked her how much, and she said 1,800 baht (about $30 USD). We heard we should always negotiate prices, so Jim was able to get her down to 1,200 baht.

Well, the River Cruise was pretty cool. They showed us a map of where we would go and that we'd be back in about an hour. So we hopped in, and took off. It was fun to be on the water, just relaxing and taking in the sights. There were many homes lined along the river. They looked like they have been there a long long time, and didn't look like some of them would weather a storm. Many people were sitting on their porches, and would wave to us, or we would wave and they would wave back with big smiles. They were very friendly.

The best part of the River Cruise was when we stopped to tour a traditional Thai House. (See prior blog post.)

Feb. 14 (Floating Market, Elephant Trekking, Reclining Buddha & Downtown Bangkok):

Today we took a taxi at 9a.m. from our Montien Riverside Hotel to go to the Floating Market, another destination on our 1,000 Places list. This was about 1.5 hours, and we drove along the freeway, viewing many salt farms, shops, and houses along the way. Once we arrived the Floating Market, we didn't know what to do. So the taxi driver said we should do the 1.5 hour trip, and that we would enjoy it. We asked him how much is reasonable to bargain, and he said as much as 40% in some cases. At least we knew the going bargain rate instead of feeling cheated, and that we wouldn't be offending anyone.

So we got in the boat, and had a nice, relaxing cruise along some houses, and some shops. Our boat driver (?) pulled over to a shop, where the lady had a nice set up of souvenirs and items for sale. I bought a nice set of photos of the Floating Market at a good bargain.

We continued cruising a long in the boat and saw many more shops similar to the one we stopped at. We told the driver to keep going, many of the shops had the same items. After about 20 minutes, we arrived at a shop that we would get off the boat and have a free "Welcome Drink" (some delicious, cool coconut juice) and shopped around a bit. We watched 2 ladies making some coconut sugar cookies, and watched locals and tourists alike shopping, buying and enjoying themselves.

We got back in the boat and finally arrived at "The Floating Market". It was amzing to se the boats floating by with goods for sale: souvenirs like t-shirts, hats, jewelry, photos, picture frames, food, drinks, etc. We came across a lady making Pad Thai right from her boat. Suddenly Jim got hungry and decided to order some. He was craving some authentic Thai food, and, well, it doesn't get much better than have a nice Thai lady cooking some delicious stir fry right from her boat! We waited in our boat next to hers while she finished. Delicious! We also bought a lunch for our boat driver, so we all ate in the boat.

Then we were off to finish our boat ride and see if there was anything else we wanted to buy. Many locals go to the Floating Market to buy produce and goods. We thought it was a great experience, and well worth the trip to see this first hand.

Once off the boat, our taxi driver took us to an Elephant Riding place. What an experience! The only elephants I have seen have been on TV or in the zoo. I have never been on an elephant and didn't know what to expect. They have little riding seats on them, room for 2 people to sit. We climbed stairs to a tall platform where they load people onto the elephants. We got on and off we went! At first it was scary, but I relaxed once I saw other people in front of us. We rode through the jungle and through the river (the photos look more adventurous than it really was...the water wasn't too deep and we were only in it for a few minutes!)

We asked our taxi if he could take us by the Reclining Buddha (another destination 1,000), just next to the Grand Palace, since we didn't get there the day before. Kindly, he took us through the awful traffic to get to the Grand Palace again and waited for us.  This is a sight to behold, The Buddha so long, golden, & reclining!

With all the photos we took, we were out of memory to take any more. Once we got back to the hotel, we asked where we could buy memory sticks or photo cards. That turned out to be an adventure in itself, because the hotel didn't have anything like that. They said we could walk across the freeway to the overpass and get some at the Home Mart Mall. Well, it was dark, probably around 6p.m., and we headed out to the mall. Mind you, there wasn't much around the hotel, just a river and some deserted buildings. So there wasn't in between, but dark road. I was fine and we almost made it to the overpass when I saw a few stray dogs, which is common here. But I am not too much a dog person even at home, so when I saw these dogs in the dark and nothing and no one around us, it was time to go back to the hotel!

Then we decided to take a hotel shuttle to downtown Bangkok, since we still hadn't seen the "downtown" area. All in search of the photo cards! Once in downtown, we were on a quest, through the Night Market (that was an experience in itself, full of vendor stalls and everyone trying to sell us stuff we didn't want!), through the restaurants and night life. We finally found 7-11; they had some blank cds where so could download our photos.

Then we walked around and finally sat to relax and have a beer (okay, probably 2!) at the Happy House Beer Garden. Jim was a happy camper! We sat and people watched, and, oh, the people we watched! Much like Las Vegas, we saw some interesting and crazy people coming and going. Seems like anything goes there. And too many people asking us to buy this, buy that, come to this bar, go to that bar. After a couple of hours, we were ready (okay, "I" was ready!) to get some food and go back to our hotel. It would be our last night in Bangkok, until our return to LA, so it was good to see downtown.

Well I was hungry, but wanted something familiar. Lucky for me there was a Pizza Hut nearby; not Taco Bell, but it was just what I needed. Something from home.

Back on the hotel shuttle, and to the hotel around midnight. That was a late night for me, but a fun, full, & adventurous Valentine's Day! One that will not be forgotten for sure!

Next posting will be our Chiang Mai photos...see you soon!