Christmas in Bangkok (Bookspotting: Week 48)

This week's bookspotting post is very late because I spent part of the Christmas holiday in Bangkok, Thailand. I noticed quite a lot of readers on the skytrain and even sitting on benches reading in the sunlight. It looked like Thailand's reading culture was alive and well this weekend. The book stall in this picture seemed to cater to backpackers and featured prominently in the market near where we were staying. I didn't spot any titles in the hands of actual readers that I could decipher, but I did notice a lot of beautiful Thai script covering the books. So in lieu of my typical bookspotting report, here are some pictures of Bangkok:

We spent a few hours exploring the huge weekend market.

There were all sorts of things for sale: clothes, bags, food, home decor, and even pets.

The city had a lot of traffic.

We saw many pictures of the beloved king of Thailand.

One of my favorite things was a museum with traditional Thai houses in the middle of urban Bangkok.

They even had an old royal barge.

We took our own boat ride on the Bangkok Canal.

We saw temples and palaces from the water...

...and plenty of modern buildings too.

Of course, the Temple of the Dawn was the best one.

But this one had hundreds of pigeons hanging out on the roof.

We also saw river houses along the banks, many of which had been damaged in the recent flooding.

A few of them were still occupied though.

We fed some very scary fish...

...and watched the other long boats go by.

After our boat ride we took a tuk tuk...

...to see the Golden Buddha.

I liked the other images better than the statue itself.

I had a lovely, non-traditional Christmas in Bangkok. Now that I'm back in Hong Kong I have some catching up to do. I'll be starting the new year with more book reviews, bookspottings, and Hong Kong walking tours. I'll also be adding videos to my blog in the new year, so stay tuned!