This morning I hung out at home and phoned my family. I talked to Mom and Dad on the phone first, and then Adina, and then Mattea. It was really nice to talk to all of them but the conversations always feel so short (even if they aren't really). Jenny took a guitar lesson this morning and so was out until I got off the phone. When she got home we went for lunch and had our regular stand by of tofu with veggies and cashew chicken.

After lunch we went to Chatuchak weekend market(if you don't know what Chatuckak is please refer to the March 26th post where you will find some info and a link). Jenny and I each had a few things we wanted to buy for our families and so tackled the crowds and went in search of goods. I was successful in getting everything I set out to buy (as well as a few extras of course) and am now ready to send a package of presents to my family. We wandered into whole new areas of Chatuchak and encounterd the fish section which seems to sell fish for pets as well as pre-cooked fish for eating. I don't like the pet sections in Chatuchak because the animals are kept in such small cages and in such heat the result is that they don't look very healthy. They also had pets for sale that I never considered pet animals, like squirrels and chipmunks. We passed food stands with full cooked squid on a stick as well as tentacle on a stick. I would have eaten one just to say that I did but I know already from past experience that I don't like to eat tentacles or squid (too chewy).

Transportation-wise we did quite well and managed to catch a van that took us directly to the market and managed to get a taxi that would turn on his meter to take us home... you sometimes have to be insistent on having them turn on the meter. In zones where there are a lot of tourist or even just a lot of foot traffic they will try to just get you to pay a flat rate instead of turning on the meter and if you say no they won't take you and you have to find another cab. The flat rate they suggest is sometimes triple what you would pay if they just turned on the meter, its awful and you really have to stand your ground. Never the less we found a taxi (we only had to ask three taxis before we found one that would turn on the meter) and we got home just in time for me to get changed and go to host the Feast*.

There were only four people at our Feast today because there is a meeting in Cambodia this weekend and so many people are away. After the Feast Jenny and I just hung out at home, she practiced her guitar skills while I prepared the package to send to my family. Now we're just chilling out and talking.

Tomorrow when Jenny is at her guitar lessons I will go over to a friend's house, they are having monks over for a ceremony (I'm not sure what it's called though). In the afternoon Jenny and I are going to try to find the english book store because we both miss reading. English movies are hard to find since most are dubbed over in Thai so maybe if they have a movie section at the english book store I'll pick up a few. Hopefully they aren't bad movies though (so far the only ones I've found in english are cheesy actions films that I have no desire to see).

The picture for today is of a lizard that was beside the path to a waterfall in Khao Yai, he was just standing there all still so I took his photo, isn't he lovely? We didn't actually see this water fall because we ran into a lot of leeches and this was when we were hanging out with Erk's family and they didn't want the little girls to have to try to deal with the leeches.

*For those of you who are not Baha'i the Feast is a monthly Baha'i gathering