At times the boat went quite fast.

Some figurines at the temple.

We fed loaves of bread (20 baht each) to these catfish.

On the second day, we went to the zoo and Maboonkrong, which is like this super big shopping complex, though I didn't manage to buy many things there. I am very picky about my clothes lah, heh. In the evening we went to the Rachatwan Cabaret (not sure if I spelled it correctly), otherwise known as the ah gua show. :D It was very interesting, to say the least. Couldn't help but wonder about how each of the performers got to where they were, and about what sort of things happened backstage. There were a couple of them who were obviously the 'stars', the ones who led each song and dance item and were obviously the centre of everyone attention. Was there any sort of rivalry or politics behind all the glitz and glamour? There were also some who still looked a lot like men in women's clothes and I wondered if they were what I've heard described as "pre-op" (thanks to Nip/Tuck).

Most of the animals were napping in the zoo (maybe it was the heat) so we couldn't see much of them, but these hippos were sleeping with their faces pushed against the display window, and in a really adorable position! Not sure how they are related though. At intervals they would lift their nostrils to the surface and take a breath. The smaller one often did the same when the bigger one did this.

Didn't manage to take many pics during the show because my digicam died on me ("Battery exhausted")! I like this 'lady' here (I suddenly recall someone calling them 'lady boys'!) because I thought she was quite elegant and not as overtly seductive and flirtatious.

Fried mealworms, packed in plastic containers! Saw these in a tidbit shop in Mabookrong.

There were guys in the show too, guys who looked and acted and dressed like guys. Couldn't see their faces very well from where I was sitting, but they all looked quite dashing. After the show was over I saw a few of them outside selling DVDs of the show ("buy one get one free") and there was one in particular who was awfully cute.

Actually the whole thing is a bit of a flesh parade, what with all those itsy bitsy bikinis - there was one piece that was actually see-through! Even the guys sometimes performed shirtless or with their shirts open - though I'm not complaining, haha. xP But the thing I found somewhat disturbing was that the whole thing was kind of like a thinly veiled freak show, with their stars parading themselves into the audience, blowing kisses and throwing flirtatious looks here and there. At one point there was even a midget on stage in a bikini! It happened when one of the stars invited an audience member onstage, where he was seated and blindfolded. She sat on his lap briefly, but left quickly, and the midget (who looked like a man because he had short hair and was rather muscular) appeared and started carressing the man's legs. I felt soo embarrassed for him!! Oh well. I suppose they get paid quite well, what with all those tourists. Still, I can't help but wonder if they're really happy working in the cabaret.

On the third and last day we got to Chatuchak by taking a tuk tuk to the train station and transferring to a skytrain (which is very much like our MRT). I bought more things here, but the best part about it was visiting the Pets section. I felt quite sorry for some of them which were obviously not well taken care of, sick, or stuffed into cramped little cages and paid scant attention. There were only a puppies there were panting really hard because of the heat. The majority of the animals there were puppies, with a few older dogs here and there, some rabbits, cats and kittens, squirrels, and hedgehogs. I saw mice, hamsters, lizards and guinea pigs at only one shop! Actually I saw very few cats and kittens too. Poor things, some of them looked really young, especially the rabbits and the squirrels, and even some of the puppies. Some of them looked really frail and miserable and scared.

The view from the back of a tuk tuk: the infamous traffic jams of Thailand! I remember reading in my Geography text in secondary school about how Thais spent about a third of their lives stuck in traffic, and how I found the idea of that so incredulous that I couldn't stop laughing about it! When the roads are clear, though, it's damn shiok to be hurtling around the road with the wind whipping your hair around. But not so shiok to be inhaling all that polluted air!

There were a lot of pugs, malteses, golden retrievers, and some others I can't name (probably some mixed breeds too), but my heart was especially captivated by this little puppy which was very alert and kept running around its little tray (most of the animals were displayed in trays a few inches in depth and lined with carpet-like material or cloth), panting and wagging its tiny tail. I'm not sure what breed it is, but it looked like a bear, and it was soooo adorable. I've always been partial to shihtzus because of Angel (Sheena's dog), but now I think I want to have a dog like that if I ever get to keep a pet. At the moment, though, Angel is still my favourite :)

There was also this cute litte bunny that I liked, and a few very good-natured dogs that tried to lick me when I petted them. Oh, I saw a baby eagle too, and it looked really pathetic and miserable. I kept trying to take a clear picture of it but it kept burying its head into its bed of newspaper cuttings and the stall owner started getting mad at me.

A pug puppy that was very intrigued by my presence! Hehe. So cuteeeee

Random puppy #1. I think it is a pomeranian, same as the one I really liked. As you can see there are other dogs in the same 'tray'. Hehe, this fella ah, one eye big one eye small. But so poor thing, it's got stickers in its ears...I presume to make the ears 'perky'. It wasn't the only animal to be disfigured by these stupid ear stickers! I just hope it doesn't hurt, because animals generally have very sensitive ears.

Random puppy #2. This was a reeeaaally small puppy!

I'm not sure how much hedgehogs normally go for, but this one is going for 500, 800 baht, which is S$22763.6364! Erps. Some kind of PROMOTION

The cute little bunny!

And this little thing here is the little puppy that really captivated me! :D Couldn't get a good pic of it because it kept running around, and I don't like to use my flash function. Here my dad has picked it up, but it was wriggling!

A bunch of hamsters all crowded around a pot; not sure what it contains though. Look at that little guy at the top left corner with the shiny beady eyes...he's like all *creeping slowly from the side* "Heeheehee...you think you're so great just cos' you managed to climb on top of the pot? I am coming up! I am coming up!" and then the one underneath him is like "ZZZZZZZZZZZ" *completely oblivious to everything*

I'll be putting up all the pics online soon! :)