thailand and bangkok

After a very good 5 hours flight we arrived in Thailand!
Sadly our only bad memory of Bali will be the money exchange screwing us royaly upon departure and gving us half of the rate......no worry but we were not happy.
30 mnutes later we checked in at Plaza Athenee (5 stars hotel) We met our dear friends, Gregoire, Agathe and Lino who moved to Bangkok only 3 months ago and are opening a new restaurant in a few days. We were the lucky ones to try all of their wonderful bistro fare. Everything was delicious!! We all enjoyed a great time together for an evening of swimming and later a great Thai food experience. Daytime while our friends worked, we were out trying to figure out what makes Bangkok tick. We jumped on the subway and headed for the nicest mall in Bangkok. In Luca's words "This place is too good for us"!! We had a kick in the largest electronics mall, a delight for our connected boys, including the big one!! Everything was tempting, especially the mini I phone! After we jumped into a modern day Rickshaw but this was pulled by a motorcycle. Our guide took us to all of his buddies, the gold dealer, the T-shirt dealer, etc and when we didn't prove to be lucrative customers, we got kicked out. He point blank said he had no time for us and it was time for us to get a taxi! We had a good laugh about this!! We tried more street food, our favorite!! We had a fantastic stir fried rice. We visited a beautiful temple which was 450 years old with the only white marble buddha in Bangkok. Our taxi ride ended at Lumpini Park where the locals jog and where large iguanas stroll the park, a shock to the tourist but quite normal for the locals!! Great Day! Great time with our friends!!