Learning Thai

Yesterday we got back into downtown Bangkok and had fun experiencing a new area. We rode the bus to a library and then explored the surrounding blocks. We really enjoy Bankok's diversity. I took the two pictures posted above from a street corner - in one direction was a mosque, in the other a Hindu temple. We ate lunch at a vegetarian Indian restaurant and then rode the bus back home.

New Year's is a major holiday here. There's a four-day weekend so scads of people are leaving the city to go back to their home provinces and the roads and public transportation networks are packed. Unfortunately the traffic congestion (and high percentage of motorcycles), alchohol consumption, and long distances that people travel combine to make this a particuarly deadly time to travel. The paper gives a daily update and compares the totals with previous years. In the past two days 109 people were killed and an additional 1,300 injured.

On a less grim note, here's another picture from yesterday - Candice and Eliza on a motorcyle taxi. (Don't worry concerned family members, we were using the motorcycle taxis inside our safe neighborhood, not on the aforementioned dangerous highways!)

-Tom