The Vietnamese embassy in Delhi was closed during Tet and after kicking around Delhi for the second time we decided to head to Bangkok for a few nights instead while we awaited the embassy's reopening so we could aquire our visas and carry on to Phu Quoc. All told we spent 8 days and 8 nights in Bangkok staying at a nice little guesthouse along the river away from the typical hustle and bustle of the tourist district. It's not our scene anymore, prefer the grungier side of things and don't like being harrassed by tuktuk drivers constantly, hello tuktuk! Once the Vietnamese embassy opened we arranged for our visas, having to wait a few days for them to be processed. It's a tricky business as one can't really book the following leg of one's journey without passports in hand. We mangaged our down time in Bangkok quite well, gorging on street foods and entertaining ourselves finding cheaper drinking establishments which is not that easy in this tourist over run city. At one point the humidity reached such an overwhelming point we retreated to one of the biggest malls I have ever seen, seven floors, completely air conditioned. Craziness. So many stores with each floor specializing, one for electronics, one for furniture, clothing, etc. With the final floor housing ten theatres. Deadpool had just come out and I managed to convince Kim to watch it, heh. Fortunately for us school had just let out and the entire back of the theatre was filled with school kids. The movie is quite funny but not as funny as listening to the laughter and reactions from a large group of Thai teenagers. We also ran into them later on in the largest anime/manga shop I had ever seen, they had life size cutouts and posters of one of my faves, One Piece. One of my best mall experiences ever, the other being in Bangalore when we also retreated from the heat. Great people watching and such a different outlook on the culture.
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