Amphawa, Terminal 21, and Soi Cowboy

We decided to do a day trip out to Amphawa, one of Bangkok's floating markets. We read that this one was a local favorite, and almost exclusively Thai, whereas the other ones are basically designed and built for tourists. So we took the metro to Mo Chit, the northernmost station, and caught Bus 77 to Mo Chit 2, the bus terminal (yeah, both stations are named Mo Chit, but they're not in the same place, confusing right? Locals call them Mo Chit BTS (metro/sky train), and Mo Chit 2 (bus) or Northern Bus Terminal). From there, we booked a minibus that took us straight to Amphawa. After our difficulties with day trip buses in China, we were pleasantly surprised when this minibus dropped us off literally 20 feet from the market.

The market was not as packed as we had expected, even on a Saturday afternoon, which is supposed to be the peak time. We just meandered up and down the river, checking out shops and seeing what foods were available on the boats.

So the way this works is you saunter up to a boat, let them know what you'd like to eat, then have a seat at these little bench/stool things on the edge, and they'll make your food right then.

This was only 30 baht, about one dollar, and it could be the best dollar I've ever spent.

We walked so far up the river that we got into the actual village. There were no people around. It was so peaceful and serene.

On our way out, we stopped at one of the food stalls and bought the cutest, smallest ice cream cones ever.

And as Isa handed the mini ice cream cone to me, we encountered the greatest tragedy of the trip thus far.

I dropped it. :(

We caught a minibus back to Victory Monument, which is more convenient than being out in Mo Chit. From here, we took the metro over to Asoke, which is the stop for two fun places: Terminal 21 and Soi Cowboy. On the subway, we noticed an interesting "only in Asia" kinda sign over the seat closest to the door, where there's usually priority seating for elderly or pregnant women:

Terminal 21 is an awesome mall where each floor is themed like a different city. The escalators are like flight terminals, "now arriving in London," "departing Tokyo." You've also got San Francisco, The Caribbean, and the movie theater is in Hollywood, of course.

It was about to close when we got there, so we left and went over to Soi Cowboy, a very short street known as Bangkok's red light district.

The girls were pretty, but sooo young and tiny. It's made up of a few bars on both sides with the girls sitting and standing around in front of them. The signage is bright and fun. Worth a visit, but not really worth spending much time there. Unless you're there for you know what.

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