Goodbye Bangkok, Hello real life!

Marc and I have been home since Thursday and after spending most of the weekend trying to convince ourselves that this time we would not succumb to culture shock/life shock we fully gave in on Monday. I feel better after baking brownies and going to work today, Marc feels better after biking and also heading back to "real life" in the office. Our house has been in disarray all weekend and is slowly organizing itself (actually I wish that would happen, we are slowly organizing it) and should be all back together in a couple of days. We had a lovely house sitter who left us a fruit bowl and toiletries on the counter complete with milk in the fridge. So much better than last time we went away when we came home to a house that had not been moved out of and three boys madly trying to move a couch and pack their belongings.

We did not document our time with Marc's sisters and their spouses (minus Shareen and Craig!) in Bangkok and thought we should do so before we forget. Marc and I headed back to Bangkok on May 10th and picked up Julie and Lowell from the airport. Carlynne and Dan arrived in the middle of the night and lucky for me (and my bladder!) I was up going to the bathroom when they arrived.

We spent the next couple of days seeing the sights in Bangkok. We mainly just explored different areas of Bangkok and ate a lot as these pictures show.
Right before this picture was taken we were forced to leave our riverside seats to make way for the King on his riverboat. We saw this several times - once we were on the opposite side of a very clear empty highway when our taxi driver told us the king would soon be on his way. Soon we saw a group of armored cars leading the way. This king travels a lot, using various modes of transportation. As do we . . .

Canal Boat

Sky Train (After getting soaked walking through the red light district. Oh the things we will do to see lady boys.)

On our first day all together in Bankok we explored some of the city markets.

And gold plated shrines to Buddha. We took this picture so we can replicate this in our house. We think we will have this gold mosaic in our entry way and then would also like condom man in the basement. We met condom man when we went to a restaurant called Condoms and Cabbages. Weird name, excellent food! Part of their proceeds go towards sex education in Thailand as well as AIDS prevention. We went to this restaurant with Rihannan, a friend of ours who we randomly ran into in Bangkok. And we thought traveling took us far away from our friends!

Having our daily (or tri-daily) iced coffees
Reclining BuddhaA girl and her dog at one of the pagodas.

Here's Marc with Marc the shark. Right after this picture was taken, actual Marc the shark came out to do a dance and meet the kids, unfortunately we missed the show and a picture taking opportunity!

Goodbye sweet life of travel. Goodbye irresponsibility. Goodbye extended adolescence. Goodbye cheap massages. We will miss you.