Shopping and Such

We ended up being rather late picking up Rachel, but it was fine. She didn't get kidnapped while she was waiting for us or anything, which was deffinately a plus. Although I was under the impression we were taking a taxi to the train station, P'Kla ended up driving us, but it turned out he didn't actually know the way to the station, so we had to switch into a taxi halfway there. My host auntie then picked us up at the train station and took us out for breakfast before we headed back to my host families house. We just spent some time hanging out and Rachel got all settled in, and then we were hoping to go to Carrefour in the afternoon to buy TimTams and other kinds of good foreign food. Then at some point my host dad asked us if we wanted to go somewhere, and we said yes just to get out of the house, without really know where he was asking us to go. He gave us these aweful bright orange shirts with Thai words on them, and told us to wear them. So we put them on and ended up being taken to some political rally thing put on by my host dad's political party to try and get votes for their candidate in the upcoming election for mayor of Bangkok. It wasn't very much fun, needless to say. Rachel and I were being kind of paranoid, and just thinking that some rival campaigners might show up and shoot the foreigners wearing the shirts which supported their enemies or something. Luckily we made it through without being shot, although we did run in to a dog that I'm pretty sure might have had rabies or some other scary disease. When we got too bored to stay around any longer, we asked P'Kla if we could leave. He then asked his friend to drive us home. So we got in the truck, and drove off, but he took us down some completely random road that I've never been down in my life. We kind of started freaking out thinking he was going to drive us off and kidnap us. We're just a little paranoid is all. As soon as we turned down a road I recognized to being close to home, I was freaking happy. Then since everyone else was still at the politcal rally thing, Rachel and I just watched movies and hung out for the rest of the night.

Rachel is now officially my hero. You want to know why? She figured out how to turn on the hot water in my shower. You want to know how to turn it on? There is a switch above the door to the bathroom (which I can't reach) which turns it on and off. Go figure, hey? I guess I could have just asked my family and figured it out alot sooner and saved mysef suffering through cold showers. But oh well, at least I will never take a hot shower for granted again.
Rachel and I ended up sharing the big bed that I used to share with Cherry. I think Cherry is a little pissed at us for kicking her onto the floor. But Rachel didn't want to sleep on the floor, and she didn't want to share a bed with someone she didn't know...

Yesterday Patch took us shopping in downtown Bangkok, mostly for me to buy a Thai dress. I ended up buying a really pretty but somewhat simple one. It's kind of a purple-ish colour, and the lady at the store tailored it to fit me perfect. Yes, I will admit she had to make it bigger for me... I bought alot of other things for myself as well. A couple of t-shirts (one that says "I heart BANGKOK"), a pair of THE comfiest pants every known to man, and a new purse. We went to KFC for lunch, and then had some super yummy ice cream while we were waiting for my dress to get tailored. When we were all done shopping, we headed back to the mall by boat. I think traveling by boat is one of the best ways to go in Bangkok, because you can really avoid all the crazy traffic jams. Patch dropped us off at the Mall as she had to go somewhere with her cousin. We shopped around for a little bit, and then met up with Cherry to take a van back to Nongchok, where we switched to a motorcycle sidecar thing for the rest of the journey home. It was the first time I've taken one of those sidecars for transportation. It was fun, but very slow going, and the whole contraption felt kind of tippy.

We don't have too many exciting plans for today. Hopefully we will be able to go to Carrefour in the afternoon and buy some good snacks and maybe rent some movies. Tomorrow we're hoping to be able to go to the Mall or somewhere else to do some more shopping.