More Bangkok Adventures

Ok I'm going to make this quick because I only have 9 minutes left at this internet cafe at our guesthouse. I have had an awesome past couple of days. I met up with Monica and the two other Palm Tree volunteers, Jessi and Alisa, who also went on our SAS voyage. We didn't know each other then, but I recognized them. It's so much fun traveling with SASers again. It's such a different experience traveling with other falangs, and I feel very fortunate to have had such different experiences here staying with Poi, hanging with Steve, and now spending time with the girls.
We are staying at a guest house, which is what they call hostels here, in Koh San, which is a very busy, very toursisty section of Bangkok. There are lots of guest houses, restaurants, massage parlors, and money exchange places, and street vendors selling food and liquor all along the road. A vast majority of people here are foreigners, but there are almost no Americans. It's a good, safe place to stay, and interesting to see.
Yesterday we got oil massages in the morning and then we took a tuk-tuk to Platinum, a humongous mall with over 1,500 stores! I didn't realize how much I missed tuk-tuk travel until the four of us were squeezed in the back of one, three on the seats and Alisa on the floor. It's definitely one of the most exciting ways to travel.
Platinum was sheer insanity. There was no way the four of us could stay together, so we created a meeting place and separated for an hour. This wasn't like a regular mall. The stores were more like stalls, and you couldn't try anything on. But you could haggle with the store owners and nothing had a fixed price. And it was ridiculously cheap. I ended up getting a dress for 300 baht, which is about $8.50. I got the girl down from 350, which isn't a huge accomplishment, but I'm just getting back into the swing of this whole bartering thing. Man have I missed it.
Last night we went down to Siam Lum, a huge night market here in Bangkok. We wanted to go to the Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing fight) which is right by the night market at Lumpini stadium. Unfortunately when we got there we found out that the cheapest tickets were 1000 baht, which none of us had on us. But a ticket salesman let us go inside to see what it was like, so we were able to snag some pictures and watch for a few minutes. Though the main fights hadn't kicked off yet at that point it looked pretty cool. At least we got a taste. Then we went and had dinner at the beer garden where Poi and I had gone my first night here. We split four Thai dishes and got some Tiger beers. There is another awesome beer we found here called BeerLao from Laos. I am really digging trying all of these Asian beers that we can't get back in the states. Although I'm pretty sure you can get Tiger some places. Ok computer is beeping at me. Outta minutes gotta go!