northward

OK, my spelling was terrible last post, but recongize that:
-I have less than 30 minutes to post
-I am a hunt-and-peck typist
-This keyboard has Thai characters
-I have been drinking.

We are now in Sukhothai, which is something like 500km north of Bangkok.
But before we got here we spent another day in Bangkok. We took part in, were immersed in, survived, the Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok, and I take back everything I said about the street vendors being Walmart. When it comes to making shopping a harrowing experience, there is nothing like Chatuchak. It is about like Granville Island, but an order of magnitude bigger, and in southeast asia.

We also spent some time in a red light district last night. My only comment: in Bangkok, apparently tricks with ping pong balls have gone mainstream. Yikes.

OK, out of Bangkok today, we have moved north. We also learned a little about travel economy. Here are the modes of transportation we used today, the distance we travelled in the mode, and the amount we paid per person.

Skytrian, 1 km, 15baht
MTS Subway, 10km, 26b
Train "special express" second class (Bankgkok- Phitsanulok), 375km, 450b
City Bus (Phitsanulok), 4km, 12b
Charter Bus (Phitsanulok - Sukhothai), 60km, 35b
Sangthaw (sitting in a bench in he back of a pickup), 2km, 50b.

So the range is 1.2 baht/km to 25baht/km. Somehting about the personal service in the back of a guy's pickup, I guess.

By the way, a Loonie buys 27 baht, so the whole deal cost us less than $20 each.

Drinving through the heart of Thailand, we were reminded that it is the world's larget rice exporter. After a while, rice paddies start to look like Illinois corn fields.

tonight we eat poo.