Geckos and tuk-tuks...

Just thought I'd let you all know what I've been up to the last couple days. On Saturday I woke up at 6:30 and knew I wouldn't fall back to sleep. Went over to 7-11, which is just down the street and got some water and strawberry yogurt (all the other yogurts had unrecognizable fruit on the labels). There are 7-11's all over the place here. At one location there was another 7-11 3 or 4 stores down. I remember being told it was crowded here but I had no idea how crowded it actually is. You walk along the street and its shop after shop after shop, all connected. And there venders in booths all over the place as well. As you walk along you see dogs all over the place. Usually there are just lying around or walking slowly. At 10 am we all met and Amanda brought us to a nearby market. The best words I can use to describe it are smelly and crowded. I was a little grossed out at the meat stands, not very sanitary looking at all! Amanda showed us to the pier. The river is fairly wide and there are many boats going up and down it. You can take a boat to Bangkok which I hope to do one of these days. We then took tuk-tuks to Big C, a nearby mall. A tuk-tuk is like a motorcycle with a back part built onto it for holding passengers. Driving around here is pretty crazy. It always looks like you're gonna hit another vehicle. After we got back I was showing Colleen our apartment and she stepped on a gecko on our floor. A gecko is a little lizardy creature. They have sticky feet and can run around on the ceiling. For supper we took taxis to a restaurant that over looked the river. We had a lot of interesting dishes but I just had rice since I wasn't feeling well. We got back just before 8pm and I headed straight to bed. Woke up a couple times in the middle of the night and thought I was in the airport for some reason. The aparmennts next to us I thought were an airport terminal. Then for some unknown reason I got up and turned off the air conditioner. When I got up later it was pretty warm! I woke up this morning (Sunday) at about 6 and headed over to 7-11 for some strawberry yoghurt. At 8:30 we took taxis to church. We went to an English speaking church in an expatriate community. After we swam in a huge outdoor pool which is right next to the church and then ate lunch at Que Paso's, a Mexican restaurant. It was a nice change from Thai food! I'm feeling much better today, just a bit of a headache. This afternoon I walked over to Big C to get a few things. Another thing I need to watch out for is banging my head on stuff. Many of the doorways in my apartment are shorter than I am. Yesterday, walking down the street I smacked my head on the canopy of a stall. Duck duck duck! a lady yelled. In a few minutes we are headed to a Japanese restaurant with Peter and Sue. Once I get settled and have time I'll take pictures of the area and post them on Flickr. Tomorrow we are going to the beach for about 3 days so that should be fun. Have a good Sunday everyone!