Weird Things About Bangkok

This was more or less another day of mostly eating and shopping and random meandering as pretty much everything is closed. Had I realized that New Year's Eve was such a big deal here, I might have tried to fly home a day earlier. Though more Thai food is never a bad thing. And I did do my most essential souvenir shopping, i.e. a book of Thai folktales.

Anyway, before I forget I want to note a few weird things here:

1) I have seen a handful of cats on the street. None of them were Siamese cats.

2) There are restaurants here that specialize in toast. That is, all they sell is toast with various toppings, ranging from sweet (butter and sugar or sweetened condensed milk or nutella) to spicy (chili paste).

3) You know how public transit in most places has signs asking you to give up certain seats to the elderly or disabled? They have signs like that here, too. But they also have signs (for other seats) asking you to offer them to monks. There is also a special space for monks on the express boats along the river.

4) Metered taxicabs come in really garish colors. Electric blue is tame. Hot pink is the most common, but I've also seen several in bright orange.

Since I am spending all day tomorrow traveling, I'll send along my Happy New Year wishes now.