Straight On To Today's Post,

for 2 reasons, 

firstly we went to immigration first thing so I am late posting it and secondly there are over 140 pictures so it is going to take some time, the taxi arrived on the dot of 7 o'clock,and we were on our way, the screen on the Sukhumvit Road at the end of Thepprasit Road not yet switched on,

on top the motorway,

traffic was light and we were soon at the Philippine Embassy to pick up Diana's new passport,

there was a bit of a queue, so I took a walk along the road whilst Diana waited inside,

I made my way past the chandelier shop,

the chandelier in the shape of a boat still has pride of place,

that is a nice address,

television screens seem to be becoming a popular way of advertising, like this one on top of a building,

I am not sure what is being advertised,

but the company I guess is called Midas,

I was actually walking past a building with a raised garden,

the site of a hotel or condo,

some say that the Internet has killed bookshops, but here is one still up and running,

making my way further along the street it was nice and cool, street cleaning was in progress,

the pavements and gutters being swept clean, I wonder if we still do that in the UK?

a shrine,

outside one of the businesses,

a final spray and the crew moved on,

I soon came across one of the streets where food is sold,

on both sides of the street,

there were food outlets, for staff that work nearby,

construction in the distance,

past another shrine,

I thought about crossing the road, but not a lot was happening on that side,

the reason I thought about crossing was that I had arrived at a overhead railway station and it would be easy to cross here,

but I continued past the Hilton,

and a roadside cafe,

looking at more of the food stalls on the street,

the selection of food on offer seemingly endless,

it was at this point I stopped and retraced my steps,

and had a look in the bookshop front window, football seems to be popular if the titles of some of the books are anything to go by,

and no trip to Bangkok would be complete without the picture of a tuk-tuk,

Diana had picked up her passport and we were on out way,

on to the motorway,

and past the BMW building as I call it,

almost everywhere you go in Thailand on the roads in big towns you never seem to be far away from giant hoardings, they advertise almost anything on the front, but behind the scenes they look like a giant Meccano set,

of course some advertisers use the whole building as a hoarding,

we were going to JJ Mart and knew we were getting close because of a high amount of work going on in this construction site,

I am still not sure what these are going to be,

we soon parked up at JJ and went for breakfast,

and here it is,

KFC and chips, what better way to start the day!

we came out of the building on a different side opposite this shop,

which sold different types of garden ornaments,

we also noticed this lady using gold leaf or paint to embellish some of her work,

if ever you by an antique that uses locks or handles on them, this is where they are made,

tree roots and branches for use in plant decoration,

we were going past the live moss section,

many of which looked quite strange,

we were near the fish section as we went past the glass marble and aquarium gravel shop,

we did not look at the live fish section as we had been there so many times before,

but made our way around the outside,

looking at birdcages,

amongst other things for sale,

this is the entrance to one of the aquatic shops,

as well as birdcages this section also had a selection of aquariums,

lots of them sold individually,

or on stands with lighting and filters,

some candied fruits I think they are to nibble on,

we then entered the dog section,

and this is as close as Diana wants to be to a dog, providing it is behind glass,

we made our way past the main market shrine as we left the dog section,

looking for this entrance,

easy to spot as it has a colourful artificial flower shop next to it,

there a number of shops in the arcade,

leaving that across the street where cars are parked is the entrance to the plant market that is here on Tuesdays and Wednesdays,

as you enter there is a seating area in the shade if you want to take a break and enjoy a drink,

before entering the market proper,

the first part of the market is undercover,

with so many plants on offer,

like these bromeliads,

I am not sure what these are,

but they looked pretty,

next door a riot of colour, but not for real,

all of these are artificial,

which is why they are so colourful,

but these are real, but made to look like this artificially,

the plant market shrine,

these almost fooled me for a second or two,

they all looked so perfect I though they must be fakes, but no, they were real plants,

leaving the covered area,

I made my way along the road that is on the outside of the complex, with stalls on both sides of it,

mushrooms!

we already had a few, but we thought it would be nice to have a few more and these are the gentlemen that sell them,

water lilies,

a couple of them with beautiful flowers,

 like this one, which reminded me so much of one I used to sell at work, it was a large growing variety called Attraction, 

this stall selling all manner of strange looking plants,

the stalls themselves are in the open and even on a overcast day like today it is hot, so take plenty of water and even a change of shirt,

orchids,

well I had to take a picture of at least one of them,

I was tempted by the cactus but resisted,

not so by the air plants,

I bought a few more, the ones that we have now seem to be flourishing well,

I then noticed these Beehive ginger plants (Zingiber spectabilis),

with their strange shaped bracts, or modified leaves which form a 'flower',

this is what happens when you buy too much, there are a number of trolleys and handlers for hire,

more cactus, 

I did weaken and buy one for 50 baht,

a few hibiscus to choose from,

as well as grafted cactus,

monkey cups (Nepenthes) on one of the stalls that sell insectivorous plants,

the plant is rumoured to have acquired the name 'monkey cup' as it was thought that monkeys drank from them,

some can grow quite large, this one is 6" or so,

one of the food sellers walks past, 

next another waterlily stall,

but this one with a fearsome waterlily in it, the Victoria waterlily, (Victoria amazonica),

it has sharp spines on the underside of it's leaves to dissuade fish from eating it,

back to more conventional water lilies,

flowers in abundance,

another trolley for hire goes past,

a real treat for me, black bamboo, (Phyllostachys nigra), only 200 baht a pot, but be warned it grows tall at over 30 feet in good conditions!

some nice Hawaiian red ginger plant (Alpinia purpurata) for sale,

continuing around the perimeter road,

I came to the big tree section,

and the small tree section,

this bonsai particularly nice,

a few hanging baskets that need a haircut,

I had left Diana at the seating area and decided to make my way back to her, cutting through the centre of the market, these stalls here are open on the weekends as well as the plant stalls, it is just that by going on a Tuesday or Wednesday to the plant stalls you can miss the weekend crush,

two things you can never go short of at the market, things to eat,

and drink,

I took a seat whilst Diana bought me a ice coffee,

at the weekends this place is packed,

we made our way back to the car going through the lighting section,

where we saw similar glass crystals to the ones that are used by the Hilton in Pattaya,

but before we left I had one thing more to buy, a piece of tree trunk to put the air plants on,

the price of the piece of wood was 1,500 baht, but by some fearful haggling it was ours for 1,000 baht,

all of which gave me a thirst for a diet coke,

and we were in the car and on our way home, our departure overseen by a life sized Superman,

the weather had been overcast all day, just as we were leaving the clouds started to disappear,

then close in again as we hit the motorway,

so goodbye to Bangkok,

and hello Pattaya, then a quick shower and change,

as Mr. Tony called round to pick us up as we were off to Cherry's for our evening meal,

we were joined by Jim and Cher,

so eyes down and look in for a second salad, 

and starter course,

then on to the main courses and carvery,

all of which was delicious,

next creme caramel for dessert, 'Cheers!', from all of us, Cherry's has an all you can eat International buffet on Wednesdays and Saturdays for 399 baht each,

I rounded the meal off with a latte coffee, 

and a glass of wine, we said our goodbyes to Jim and Cher, Mr. Tony kindly dropped us home where we said our goodbyes, a couple from Red Dwarf and we after a long day were off to bed.