Two travelers in a Tuk-Tuk

You know you're traveling in a foreign country when Brooke turns and says to you; "Good news, I just farted."

Since we moved to our new hotel - Khao San Palace - by the River Chao Phraya, the local food and culture has become our focus. The jet lag seems to have passed, and we are now Tuk-tuk-ing our way around town, eating at the street venders, seeing statues of Budha, and being heavily solicited to buy jewelry and custom tailored thai silk suits.

Sometimes Budha is sitting, sometimes reclining, smetimes standing. The biggest was probably 60 meters high. Because it was Budha day on Friday, many of the "Wats" (temples) that are normally closed to the public were open. Two of them were completely empty when we arrived -which felt very VIP.

By the end of the day we learned that Tuk-tuk drivers get a gasoline voucher if they take tourists to one jewelry store and one tailor. We learned this because our second tuk tuk driver told us explicitly that our fare would be much less if he took us to two stores along the way. In the first one we didn't try very hard to look interested and the driver said we had to do a better job of pretending otherwise he wouldn't get his voucher. We put on a pretty good show with the tailor, and with the second jeweler, so our driver was happy.

I couldn't help but wonder if the vouchers were government sponsored, mandated, or entirely voluntary on the part of the store owners.

For dinner we wetted our appetites with some BBQ squid... mmm, spicy and very chewy. And then found some fresh pineapple for about 30 cents. For the main course we had Pad Thai and spring rolls. Two large servings cost us about a dollar each. Amazing.

Tomorrow we leave by bus for Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, and then Phnom Phen to see the capital and get Visas for Vietnam.