This past week has been a good "tourist" week for us. Nic has been feeling better and better and we've been taking complete advantage. Last weekend we spent the day with my cousin John who is a principal here. He took us through the ferry system and got us up to speed on transportation in Bangkok. We went for lunch at a local thai restaurant where we had amazing authentic thai food. Luckily, we had John with us to order the more "mild" versions of each dish. After lunch we went to our first temple, Ao Pho-temple of the reclining buddha.

The temple was amazing. I didn't expect to be visiting a temple and was wearing a tank tops and shorts so when we entered I got yelled at and the security guard wrapped me up like a mummy in spare shawls. You also have to take off your shoes outside each one. The reclining buddha was HUGE and very elaborate There are pictures on Nic's facebook. Then we bought some coins and you get in a long line to offer to the buddha. They have about 30 little pots along the wall and you go through and drop a couple coins in each one. The rest of the day we used the BTS and found busy markets and where to get good food. We really got a good taste for Bangkok and how to leave more like a local than a tourist.

The rest of the week we stayed pretty close to Sivalai Place. We went out for dinner one night with a couple of other students to a seafood restaurant. It was a pretty far ride but definitely worth it. We ordered platters of crab and soft shell crab which I'd never even heard of before. To top that off we had our first experience of mango sticky rice which apparently the restuarant is famous for. That dessert is most definitely going to make it into my thai diet.

Our gecko has taken a vacation, but I guess he asked friends to come by. We have more than enough ants and a cockroach showed up on Thursday night. Nic used a glass and put him in the toilet. Hopefully that's the last we see of any cock-a-raoches in our apartment.