Day 22,

out last full day in Bangkok started here,

at the shrine in Chatuchak market, it is a weekend market, but the livestock section we wanted to visit is open every day, when we lived in Thailand we would often come here for a day out, but it has to be said at the time we had 2 large aquariums, a 600 and a 900 litre plus a few smaller ones, so there were always a few bits and pieces we would pick up, 

there were a number of new shops here, 

on Tuesdays I believe it was all of this area would be covered in bags of fish at wholesale prices, this is the area where shops would buy from breeders and wholesalers, 

almost every type of aquatic product can be bought here, 

from koi,

to plants, 

to medication for your fish, 

and live foods, here brine shrimp and bloodworms,

and some really impressive fancy goldfish, 

they were by UK standards huge, 

not to everyone's taste, but they are certainly different from a normal goldfish!

aquariums stocked with fish, 

and plants everywhere you look, 

lots of plants, 

it seems incredible that a shop can make ends meet just selling plants, but they do! many of the shops are in exactly the same places as they were some 6 years ago, 

another shop with copious amounts of medication,

it was for us so much like old times,

in case you get lost, all of the alleyways are marked, if you look up, 

we continued our walk, 

and came across the section that sells Arowanas,

these can be some of the most expensive captive breed fish in the world, 

with all manner of names, 

red and golden dragon as well as green and batik,

I have included more than a couple of photographs of arowanas, as I am reading a book titled The Dragon Behind the Glass,

for myself it is an amazing read, as I have met or know about so many of the 'main' players that are mentioned in the book, (and a couple left out but to be fair they were more African based), the book deals with a murder, which sounds strange in the peaceful, tranquil world of fishkeeping but it does happen, and as it happens later we shall see a arowana that is here in the market and is up for sale for over £200,000, I kid you not!

a few more fancy goldfish in this section, 

in aquariums and bowls on the ground, 

lots of shrimps for freshwater aquariums,

so many fish to look at,

as well as freshwater 'lobsters', we actually kept a few of these in small aquariums, 

just pick up a aquarium and away you go!

Diana like myself just loves looking at all of the fish on display, 

the koi section,

and here a shop specialising in Siamese fighting fish, (Betta splendens),

we also here looking for some medication for a friends fish, available here but unfortunately the manufacturer has yet to appoint a UK agent, 

so into one of the two major dry goods wholesalers here, 

success!

I mentioned a arowana selling for over £200,000, it is in this shop, 

and here it is, to save you working it out the 8.8 million baht at todays rate is £200,753.52, which sounds expensive, but it must be borne in mind that some arowanas fetch double that, for instance the Platinum Arowana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum), can go for $400,000, back to the fish here, firstly I am not a expert on arowanas, 

and I could not get as close as I would have liked to, but I think this specimen is a albino golden arowana, is it worth the money? well only you can decide that!

we are coming into the bird section, 

which is not here any more! back in 2014 when we visited this section a couple of geese roamed around here on the road on the right, 

this is what the area looked like then, 

and here is one of them, 

having a look for food, there was a single one of them, 

as well as a pair of them, 

that called by,

new to me, bird cages and a hamster/mouse cage made using Perspex, 

another shrine near the centre of the livestock section,

we carried on walking, along familiar alleyways, 

and shops that were still here from 6 or more years ago, 

we were now in the dry goods section, 

with its own shrine in the centre of a roundabout, 

along this aisle a few shops specialising on getting your goods back home, 

under the archway, 

that lead to a small plant section, 

specialising in bonsai, unfortunaly the main plant section does not open until Saturday, 

bonsai in the making, 

and here are a few that were made earlier, 

no prices I am afraid to say,

but I have to say, 

they looked quite impressive, and with that we were back to the hotel to pack for our return trip to the UK

but first,

our last night in Bangkok, 

and where else to go? the open top floor of our hotel,

61 floors up!

and what a view across the city, one of the bridges across the Chao Phraya River,

we had a cocktail each, and whilst there a nice surprise, as it was the evening of Loy Krathong, fireworks started going off in front of us, 

what an amazing sight, 

the photographs on my telephone,

really do not do the displays justice, as they finished we made our way downstairs for a good night sleep, next day in the afternoon over to the airport for our trip back with EVA arriving in London I commented to Diana, "no waiting for you now with your UK passport", normally it is a long wait for Diana to clear immigration, I should not have said anything, Diana went straight through the automatic passport scanning machine, my passport was rejected! I had to go to a desk that had a queue of people in front of me that had the same problem, after what seemed like an age I joined a clearly happy Diana laughing that after all of that she had to wait for me! we arrived home without further incident, many, many thanks to Diana for funding all of this, our first real holiday in 6 years.