Bumming Around the Malls

Up about 8:00, tried to sleep in. Had breakfast, finished reading "Lost in Mongolia", watched tv (CNN), bought a couple of new books.

About noon, took the boat to Central pier and then took the Skytrain to Siam Paragon shopping centre to go to Siam Ocean World, SE Asia's largest aquarium. Before heading in, had lunch at McDonalds, then spent 4 hours or so in the aquarium. Saw the feeding for the water rats and otters, the shark feeding, the huge sting ray feeding, the reef fish feeding and the penguin feeding. I have a fascination with aquariums, so enjoyed it. They also had a tunnel that was surrounded by water, so you could see the sharks, fish and stuff swimming all around you. The ticket also included entry to Sanyo 4D theatre, a 3D movie (with special glasses) and seats that moved and blew air on you to scare you.

As I was heading to the mall, I can into Rob and Colleen (Courtney's parents), they are leaving tomorrow. Found out that Courtney and Chris headed back early, I guess they wanted to get back because Chris needed to get back to work, and wanted some time to recuperate.

Caught the Skytrain back to the pier and got the boat back to Koh San Road, found my parents, and we went to Burger King. My dad was craving some western food.

Walked around Koh San Road for a bit, sat down at a street bar and had a couple of beers.

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday, and when we were checking the internet earlier in the day, she got a birthday greeting from Olga's parents in Russia. My dad had forgot, so the email reminded him. As we were sitting at the street bar, some local came along and laid out a blanket on the street and placed a bunch of handmade cards on it, selling them to passerby's. After a while, my dad asked my mom if she had 200 baht, she gave it to him, and he walked off, without saying anything. I saw him hunched down, looking at all the hand-made cards and purchasing one. A short while later, he came back with a "happy birthday" card. What was funny was we (mom and me) saw the whole thing.

Got back to the hotel about 10:30. Read and watched "There's Something About Mary", and went to sleep about 12:30.