Bangkok, February 16

We decided to go into Bangkok for the day and because we didn't know how to use the train system we decided to hire a taxi to take us into the city. It took about half and hour to get into the outskirts of the city. The traffic was good, according to the driver, because it was Sunday.

Victory Monument. "No one seems to know what Victory Monument commemorates, but all roads and practically all forms of public transportation in Bangkok, maybe even all of Thailand, lead here." wiki-travel^[1]

After a drive around the monument our driver took us to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. The driver let us off and told us that all we had to do was take the train back to the place we were staying.  If we couldn't figure it out he would come back in the afternoon and get us. All we had to do was call him. Of course, we didn't have a way to call as we didn't have a phone. He told us just to give his number to someone with a phone and they would call him.

Chatuchak market is huge and we walked around only part of it. 

"The 35-acre (68-rai) area of Chatuchak is home to more than 8,000 market stalls. On a typical weekend, more than 200,000 visitors come here to sift through the goods on offer. Veteran shoppers would agree that just about everything is on sale here, although not all at the best bargain rates. But if you have one weekend in Bangkok, squeeze in a day trip to Chatuchak Weekend Market and you will not be disappointed."

Fruit and vegetable selection.

These are good luck charms made from flowers, garlic and other items that people hang on their vehicle mirrors, on their stands or places where they want good luck.

This wok was huge!! The restaurant was cooking a seafood dish in it. It looked delicious.

After about two hours walking around the market we decided to call it a day and it was time to figure out how to use the train system. We wanted to travel to Terminal 21 and then back to the hotel where we were staying.

Train map guide. The train system is well organized and color coded. We knew we could make it to the places we needed to go. 

First stop was Terminal 21. This is a huge mall and it is one of the sites where the protests in Bangkok are taking place.  The roads were still blocked and they had groups playing music was on the stage.

The streets outside the mall are closed to traffic. There are lots of vendors and food stalls set up along the streets. There were also a lot of tents.

"Terminal 21 is a one floor one theme shopping mall. The concept is market streets of the world. It is decorated based on well-known streets in cities such as Rome, Paris, Tokyo,London, Istanbul. This mall has the longest escalators in Thailand, up to 36 metres." wikitravel. There are nine floors in the mall. You can buy just about everything. Clothing, food, restaurants, jewelry, etc. Just like our malls but only bigger!!

You could spend a great deal of time just riding the escalators.

We didn't do any shopping, we just looked around and decided it was time to figure out how to get back to our hotel via the train system.

We took the subway from Terminal 21 to Makkasan Station where we took the Sky Train to the train station near where we were staying. You can take the Sky Train from the city to Suvarnabhumi International Airport. A lot of travelers use the train to get to and from the city to the airport. 

We made it back to the Lat Krabang Station (our get off point) and hired a taxi to take us to our hotel.

The end to another adventurous day.