Five – The loneliness that is Bangkok

Yesterday was spent wandering through … more malls. I’ve ceased to be impressed, although the Paradise mall’s six-story, multi-tiered waterfall that cascaded into a pool at the bottom with six foot long catfish was pretty cool. I’ll probably go back and check out the water-park on the top of the mall before I leave.

Of more interest was an older mall that I found. It was obvious that, at one point, this mall had been as clean and prosperous as the other malls I’ve seen. At only five stories tall, it had a Ferris-wheel on top, but half its booths were empty, its fountain wasn’t running, and a large part of the mall was boarded off all together. I guess that it just serves as a good example of the seeming transient nature of Bangkok (and other big cities). The money moved to a newer part of the city, leaving behind dilapidated monuments to former affluence.

Here’re a few pictures:

This is the King Rama XIII bridge (well, you can’t see the bridge– I’ll get a picture of that later, perhaps), built in honor of the last king who reigned until 1947, Rama XIII. Taken from my apartment.

New Bangkok skyline, taken from the same place.

Josh at dinner last night:

A few blocks from our apartment, this restaurant, called Nite, is a do-it-yourself Mongolian grill, of sorts. When we were seated, an an oven (of sorts)– a pot with coals in the bottom and a cooking surface on top with a ring of water around the edge– was brought to our table (on the right). There was a large buffet table with various meats, vegetables and sauces that we filled our plates from, and then brought the food back to the table and cooked it (you can see some meat on top of the oven). It was, all at the same time, tasty, a(n?) unique experience, and a lot of fun.