Another Wet Start To The Day,

yet again I did not have to water the plants! the bad news is that some parts of Pattaya have become flooded, according to the local news stations later in the day, as we had not visited there lately we decided to visit the weekend plant market on Sumkivitt, near the Bangkok Pattaya hospital,

it was a bit wet under foot to say the least, but at least the rain had stopped, a small ready to install waterfall, we had seen lager ones before at 35,000 baht but we did not enquire the price of this smaller one,

some stall holders did not make the trip, due to the rain I guess, so we had a clear look at one of the fish stalls,

a wooden tree stump decorated with orchids, I have seen many of these before, but unlike here the plants were taken out of their pots and attached to the tree,

but although wet a large number of traders still arrived,

it appears it is still water lily season,

they were everywhere,

new for this week, ducks,

it is enough to drive you quackers!

over the years out here I have seen many of these moisture liking plants,

but never in flower/seed,

another moisture lover,

with strange looking flowers,

next to one of the bonsai stalls,

I really liked the way the moss has grown over the top of the soil, this one with a few trees,

this one with just two trees growing in it,

tree over rock,

then to the orchids,

these are all cut flowers,

most of the stalls sell plants not cut flowers,

in almost any shade you want,

a smaller fish stall than the previous one,

I noticed this beauty at the back of a otherwise nondescript stall,

it is surprising how large some of these orchids grow,

and with so many flowers,

and plenty of buds still to go,

a close up of one of the flowers,

then to another bonsai stall,

I must admit I was not too keen on this one,

or this one, the roots looked nice but it just looked at the top like a chopped off trunk,

another one that I was not so keen on, but I am sure it will find a home,

for me this was much nicer,

as were some of these,

one of the modeling things in bonsai is to make the tree look old, to achieve this wire is used to bend the tree into a shape that is pleasing to you, typically the wire is removed after several months, the tree should then retain the shape it was bent in to, if you look carefully you might be able to see that wire around this trees trunk,

another nice tree for me,

one more I have not seen before,

I do not have a clue as to what it is called, but the flowers looked so unusual,

along to another stall selling water lilies,

lots of them,

after a look around for a hour or so it was time for a fresh ice coffee, as Diana was waiting Riza called,

on the way back we called into NumChai,

it is a huge electrical store, we wanted to look at the LED televisions, we are saving up to buy a new one, but still at the looking stage, the problem being that the players are all country coded, so our UK DVD's will not work on a Thailand purchased player, I have read that you can unlock them but then when the player goes on to the Internet to unload the latest firm ware the unlock is rejected, you can do this once then the machine locks up, for good, the reason we purchase our DVD's in the UK is of course so many titles are not available here in Thailand, also the translation into English subtitles is appalling at best,

then home, Mike and Riza, Jay and Precil called round shortly after we arrived back home, so the boys upstairs whilst the girls went to the market and cooked some fish, which we all agreed smelt for us, not so nice,

all too soon it was time for our guests to leave,

and for us to get ready for our night out on the town,

we took a stroll along Walking Street,

towards Bali Hai pier and back,

it was fairly crowded considering it was still before 9.00 in the evening,

I had not seen this bar before,

for military types I guess,

I have mentioned this before, if I was thinking of having a tattoo I would have serious reservations about going to a tattoo parlor called The House Of Pain!

we finally arrived at our destination, Champions, Juu was there with his wife, also Slim Jim called in, for a soda or two, then time to make our way home,

but we called into see a friend of Juu's on the way home, he was very kindly giving us a lift home,

'Cheers!' from us, by now it was more than late so as soon as we arrived home it was off to bed.