Dinner on the River

The taxi wasn't lost, we just could not find the restaurant. We, again, handed the cell phone over to him. We were in front of this amazing gold painted temple on some nondescript road barely wide enough for two cars. We make a U-turn and veer down a slightly sloped driveway of a road to stop at the river. It is raining and we are not jumping out of the taxi too quick.

"walk, walk, walk" says the taxi driver as he laughs with a bit of insanity seeping through. He is pointing to a shack/ house on the other side of a giant pool of murky river water. We get out to find a toothless woman handing off an umbrella to us. Rain falling on my head is the least of my worries as I see that the only way to the restaurant is a path of sandbags piled on top of each other. It looked similar to when people put those flat round stones in their grass to lead up to the entrance of their house, except with sandbags and in an extremely polluted river. It was awesome! The restaurant was quaint, amazing ambiance. We had the place to ourselves.

It was the owner's house, and the house could not have been any closer to the river without being a boat. The food was good, amazing fried rice with shrimp, and the beer was cold.

We sat and laughed as we watched the sun set as the rain let up. I was so excited to go over those sandbags again! I did not expect to see the next door neighbor outside taking his bath when we left, but I am getting more used to seeing things I would not expect.

(Like the elephant in the middle of the road on the way to dinner. A tiny little Asian Elephant, looking just as out of place as I had felt in chinatown the day before)

Earlier that day was spent at the Chatuchak Market, a weekend market that is more packed with people and booths than the state fair. Narrow walkways of chaos selling any random thing you can think of; from nice wood furniture and fine art, to "cotton" socks and brightly colored scarves, to coconut shakes and snakes. Teresa, Gabriella , and I only lasted a few hours (non of us having that shopping gene) and by mid-day, the heat was only magnified with the crowds. I left with a few things I thought I could use in India, 2 pair of lightweight "fishermen pants" and a notebook. I will return to Chatuchak again!