Take a picture of the lady who sells it, so you can remember all the amazing vendors along “the mosqe street” (and kick yourself for never learning the actual name of the street, but always calling it that because it’s the only street in the neighborhood that has a mosque on it.)

Accompany your husband to Daddy Dough, a doughnut shop down the street, because one of his students told him it had the best doughnuts in the whole city. Watch him agonize of the decision making process:

Wow, they really do have a lot of good looking doughnuts!

Wait for the ferry at the Central Pier.

Marvel at the fact that as soon as you get on the boat, it goes from nice and sunny to absolutely pouring.

Take the ferry up to the Khao San Road Area. Yes, it’s overly touristy, but you’ve been living like a local in Thailand for 3 months, so it’s okay to go there for the relaxing bars and hilarious people-watching. Enjoy your prawn crackers and beer (with ice!) while everyone around you consults their SE Asia on a Shoe-String Lonely Planets and reminisces about elephant rides and Full Moon parties.
Then find a book store and attempt to find a book for the interminable plane flight tomorrow.

Give up, because the books are completely unorganized and you can’t find any worth reading. Figure you’ll have to settle for the best in-flight entertainment Royal Jordanian Airlines has to offer.
Take a taxi to Pahurat to indulge in some Indian food.

Note that the cab driver is looking to keep his vehicle smelling pleasant.

Don’t worry that you’re stopped at one intersection for a full 40 minutes. This is authentic Bangkok traffic, and it’s the last you’ll experience of it for quite some time.
Wrap up your night with a 30 baht bowl of yellow noodles with red pork, sausage, and egg like you’ve had every night for the past two weeks. You’re not going to end that streak until you absolutely have to.

Now, you’re ready to say goodbye to Bangkok. Don’t worry, you’ll probably be back sooner than you think!

Songkran is Thai New Year, and most of the country turns into one giant water fight that lasts for 3 days.  People also spread a chalky paste on each other’s faces to protect from evil spirits.

I really wish I could have taken my camera out to capture some of the insanity, but I’ve already had my laptop die on this trip and I didn’t want my camera to be next.  However, here’s a video of what we experienced before this picture was taken:Songkran on Silom Road, 2009

We grazed our way around the market for awhile, until a huge thunderstorm appeared out of nowhere (it’s the season for that now), which cut our visit a little short.

We were there long enough to have some of these, though. They are basically little doughy squares with some greens inside, which are fried and cut into cubes, and served with a sweet sauce. I ate them all.the.time in Chiang Mai, but they’re a little harder to find here.

The market also has a nice selection of beverages.

Gotu kola, according to my research, is in the parsley family and supposedly has many medicinal qualities (it has been used as treatment for everything from syphilis to epilepsy).

On the Skytrain home, we decided to get off at Saphan Kwai – a part of town we’d never been to before.

We were met with a Big C, the Thai equivalent with WalMart.  In the surrounding streets were dozens of street vendors, including the lady who sold me my first ever Kow Neow Ma Muang (mango with sticky rice).

Until yesterday, I had never tried mangoes with sticky rice.   I don’t know why…I love all three components separately, and it’s not as if it isn’t readily available in many Thai restaurants at home.

Mango season began relatively recently, and now carts selling this delightfully simple treat have popped up all over the city.  I realized I could not go another day in this city they call the Big Mango without trying it.

I love simple food like this.  Just sticky rice, freshly sliced chunks of mango (and not the sour, weird-textured stuff I sometimes find in the grocery store – these are delicately sweet with a creamy texture) and coconut milk.

We also came across the new location of our favorite hotel in Bangkok, Reflections.  This place is pretty off the wall, as evidenced by this little number right in the middle of the restaurant:

Our final stop before going home was the ridiculously ritzy Siam Paragon shopping mall. Their food court is a destination in itself.
One of the many outlets is called Conizza, and sells pizzas in the shape of a cone.  I read about these on a food blog a few months ago, and HAD to try one.  I have to say, it’s one of those novelty items you only have to try once!

Those little orange things in the foreground? Those are the yolks of salted eggs.  They take on an a delightful soft texture, and the whites lose all their rubberiness.  I wanted to investigate the secret behind these lovely eggs, and here’s what I found:

These are simply eggs cured in brine for a few weeks, then boiled when needed.  They apparently even keep at room temperature after soaking (but everyone keeps all their eggs at room temperature here, so I guess this process just gives them a longer shelf life).

The salad is a perfect lunch with my beloved sticky rice.

And some tidbits on my life in Bangkok:

Victory Monument has some of the best shopping I’ve found! I bought 2 cute pairs of flats, a skirt, a pair of pants, and sunglasses for about $30 total!

Lumpini Park is my one of my favorite places in the city! I run the loop around the park every morning (which is about a mile from my apartment – perfect warm up and cool down!) and it is the perfect place to people watch.  I can’t get enough of the giant group aerobics classes at the entrance to the park – this morning they were blasting techno Christmas carols over the loudspeakers

My job is amazing.  Yes, I work in the mall (OK, a language school in the mall), and the bus ride is about 45 minutes each way, but the kids are fantastic and the school is SO much better organized than where I worked in Chiang Mai!