Friday 26th

After a nice sleep in we were taken for an awesome buffet lunch by Fais' family. We tried pretty much everything there so we were mightly full. We have never had so much nice food in our entire life! I can honestly say that the the thai people we know in bangkok were so helpful and kind to us, and made us feel so welcome. Particular praise should go to Fai, who was very kind and acted as our tour guide, and translator and comrade in arms in difficult situations such as the whole suit drama. THANKYOU ALL!

After lunch we went to another different mall, just to see an exhibition/gallery/ design library space they have set up there called TCDC. The library was fantastic, apple macs, desks for students tons of books and a material library that you could physically see samples of thousands of different fabrics plastics maetals woods etc etc. I wish we had something like this in wellington! There were two exhibitons\, one on fear and mystical creatures from different cultures. Interesting but some very odd works, such as a revolving head with guts hanging out the neck. The other exhibition was called what is desing and focused on some different countires and thier typical design styles eg. the 60's beatle bristish clothing and japanese minimalism. although a small exhibition it was well set up and enjoyable.

Revolving head at the fear exhibition


Zombie? Crawling out of a vent in the floor. Fear Exhitbition

What is desing exhibiton. I believe this is the Italian section if my memory serves me correctly

Sticking with the culture theme we went to the Bangkok Culture and Arts Centre. The buidling is very NYC guggneheimish inside, but on the top levels were some very poignant photography exhibitons of the red shirt protest/taking over of central bangkok. A range of different artists who each had thier own specific style, the whole thing really brought home the hugeness, danger, and human realities and emotions of the event that the news somehow didnt communicate. So we all felt very humbled. Outside on the street entry of the Centre was a series of interactive pieces that you could walk through and experience. Im not sure exactly what they were for, or what some of them meant, but they were great fun to wander through.

Interactive instillation


Intyeractive instilation

View from ground level of Bangkok arts and cultural cetre. High rises and the skytrain. This is the new Bangkok

After getting home we though we have to get out and see some of the nightlife, so we bought some drinks from the local tescos at yes another different shopping mall, had a few drinks at home and headed to Royal City Avenue, a street of nightclubs near Phra Ram 9, which is where we were staying. We went to this one big club, really it was like 4 clubs in one. It was ggod fun all untill it closed at 2am and we had to head home..... which took us prob 1hr and should have taken us 10min. We had to get 3 taxis. taxi 1 took us the opposite direction to what we wqanted. taxi 2 took us about 200m and dropped us off just as much in the middle of nowhere. thankfully taxi number 3 took us back home. It all made for a hell of a morning the next day.

JJJ

Alright guys thats all for tongiht, it's 1. 30am and i'm supposed to be cycling in the cambodain heat tomorrow so wish us all luck. Next post for blog will be Ayutthaya then Khao Yai national park so stay tuned. I will try to pass of blog duty to another J for next one to get a fresh writer and perspective, and so i can get a good sleep tomorrow haha. Ok hope everyone is doing ok back there in NZ. Thanks for reading.

JB