IMAX and Chatuchak Market

This weekend we made an obligatory trip to Bangkok to take care of visa issues. Win/Win as far as I'm concerned: visa approval and walking, shopping, street food, movies... A large portion of our time was spent waiting in line to buy tickets, waiting to watch and watching IMAX-3D Avatar. My students insist there's 4D Avatar where incidents of exploding brains and suicide have occurred (current event reports). Paired with the constant string theory lectures, my smelly feet (removed the Chacos while watching) and the packed IMAX theater, I'm pretty sure I saw Avatar in 4D, and unlike the rumors of the people who killed themselves because they didn't want to "leave the world of Pandora," I walked out of the theater unscathed. Whew!

Besides eating street food, temples, movies and picking up western garb I cannot find in HCMC, I always make an effort to go to the Chatuchak weekend Market. This time I picked up some brown and white decorative lights I've wanted for over a month now (a month of waiting, imagine). I'd spotted the light set when I was in Krabi for winter holiday, but they were over 250 baht per string. Deal, steal--I picked up the same set in Bangkok for under 100 baht. I'll be hanging the lights this week in between my trips to yoga class in district one, which, by the way, I love.