First day of exploring started with hunting for breakfast. After realizing that the mall didn't open until 10am and we had to meet our "guide" Auntie Belinda at 9:30 in the lobby of BCGH. So we settled in at Au Bon Pain where I had a sweet cheese muffin and Ice Coffee. Due to a mis-communication or rather the lack of it we ended up leaving BCGH at 11am. We took a taxi to what claims to be the tallest building in Bangkok, the Baiyoke Sky Hotel. Our guide Aunt Belinda took us to the mall underneath the hotel and then we went up and up, and up.

The lobby is actually on the 17th floor and that is where you purchase your ticket. We had a buffet lunch on the 77th floor which had an awesome view of the city. Let me tell you that food was awesome! It was a good thing we had plenty of walking left because after going 5 rounds including dessert, I was ready for a nap. There was everything from American to Japanese food and then some more! On the 79th floor they had a picture gallery of various settings that were very much what is Thai. We took our picture on the tuk-tuk, the hut on the river, herding the elephants and flying in an air balloon over the city. Then we went up to the 84th floor and stepped foot on the revolving roof deck. You can stay put in one place and get this awesome 360 degree view of Bangkok. I'm sure at night it must be spectacular but it was pretty impressive in the daytime too.

After lunch we took a bus to the Victory Monument. It is this place that has a rotunda but right in the middle of it is this military monument. The monument was erected in June 1941 to commemorate the Thai victory in the brief war with the French colonial authorities in Indo-China. After taking our picture and oohing over the place. Aunt Belinda showed us how to get on the skytrain and navigate our way around the center of Bangkok. We went to 4 mega-huge shopping malls including the infamous MBK. I have never in my life seen anything like this, the four malls were all connected by overhead walkways so you didn't even have step foot on the streets below. There was plenty of shopping to be done but we didn't by anything. Aunt Belinda had to go and get her kids so for dinner it was just me and my cousin.

But first there was a mission to be accomplished. Find the Build-A-Bear store in Bangkok and get Sebastien an outfit. So we took a taxi to the Zen Mall and found out where the store was. I convinced my cousin to make her own bear, yes my persuasion power worked! She made a bear named Jitzky as her own special souvenier from Thailand. Then it was onto our last mission of the day...dinner. We didn't want to take a taxi since that ride we had getting to the mall was pretty scary already. I thought French drivers were crazy but man put an Asian person behind the wheel in Bangkok with no English speaking skills and a heavy foot....talk about an unforgettable ride! It also didn't help the fact that my cousin pointed out the driver kept staring at me when he wasn't looking at the street. So we didn't have to pay the exact fare amount instead he lowered the price a little bit. LOL Not something I was comfortable with!

So we walked around a bit and ended up in two other malls before finding our way to the Skytrain and getting a ride back in our neighborhood. We decided to eat in the little mall there. There was this place just full of local and the menu was in Thai, so that's where we went. Now that was another experience! We smiled, pointed at the food we wanted and just waited to see what would happen next. There was a crock-pot filled with boiling water and some stock in the middle of the table. The menu consisted of things you can cook inside it to make your own soup. But I ordered pork dim-sum just in case the food didn't turn out. Thankfully it did and we paid less than $10 for the whole dinner. Yay!

Today was certainly filled with new experiences and the beauty of realizing that all one needs to communicate is to smile and use plenty of hand gestures. (Polite ones mind you!) You really don't need to raise your voice, but a phrase book of the local language will help you very much. As well as learning some key phrases like "Hello" and "thank you".