Goodbye, Bangkok

I didn't have to be here today until 1:30. Well, that's when I had to be here, but I actually got here around ten because my lesson still needed a lot of work. It was nice not having to be here at eight, since I stayed out kind of late last night. I had dinner with one of the other teachers who works at IH Bangkok. Peter was a Classics major, so I learned a lot of fascinating stuff about coins and Greek and fun junk like that.

We walked around the crowded streetsfor a long time trying to find a place to eat, and after about forty-five minutes stopped at a roadside cart cafe. They had English picture menus, which is always nice. Unfortunately, looking back on it, I'm guessing that the English menus also are different prices than the regular menu. All the other outdoor restaurants that I've eaten at only charge thirty baht for a meal like that, whereas we paid a hundred. But oh well. A hundred is still only about $3.35.

After dinner we walked around more, just looking at things and talking. I always like doing that, but I don't always feel safe doing it by myself, at least at night. When passing a restaurant, I saw the weirdest thing ever in one of their outdoor fishtanks! I'm almost at a loss in describing them, but I'll try. At first glance they looked like crawfish, but then I realized that they were more like crawfish/centipede/praying mantis/shrimp dudes. They were swimming and scuttling around the bottom of the tank, and one was even cleaning itself just like a dog or cat. So weird. We watched them until a man in a blue apron holding a fish-net asked us to move. He was extracting one of the creatures for dinner.

Later we saw an outdoor bar. We were going to get a drink, so we sat at a rough, wooden table by some plants. Then we saw the drink menu. The prices were pretty atrocious, so we quietly snuck out of the place.
Then we went to 7-11 and got honey-lemon green teas. Much better, I think. I barely got home, but I had just enough money. I had two hundred and thirty-six baht at the beginning of the night. I paid a hundred for dinner, thirty for the BTS, and a hundred for a taxi. Yes, I had six baht (five cents) left when I got home.