Our first morning in Bangkok was super lazy because we had been up all night traveling. Once we took a little nap and had a refreshing massage we went out on the water ferry and headed to Khao Sam Road night market. It was a fun place but nothing compared to some of the places we have been as of late. But we spent the night wandering and eating street food. They had the kebab wraps there we were so obsessed with in Chiang Mai-so we weren’t sad about that at all.
I also have to say that of all the places we have been, the people in Thailand have been just above and beyond nice, helpful, kind, fun and great to be around. They are by far our favorite people/culture to have the opportunity to experience!
Friday morning brought with it a day full of tourism. We decided to start at the Grand Palace and quickly, and kindly, found out that was happening. We ran into a student who told us they were closed for a couple hours and then he took our map, drew out a new route for us and bargained with a tuk tuk driver! Very nice guy and we were lucky to run into him!
So we were off to the Golden Mount and climbed 344 stairs to see an incredible view of the city and ring the bell at the top three times for good luck! Then we were off to the export. This is where Armani clothes are made and is typically restricted to locals, however, they had a special and were allowing tourists for seven days and this was the seventh day. We spent a short amount of time there before we headed off to Wat Intharawihan and took in a 30-is meter high standing buddha-pretty impressive. Did I mention we were snacking on street food the whole time? Peeled and cut pineapple, dragon fruit (we like the white not the pink, but can’t tell the difference until they are cut, this amazing pork, banana fritters, etc)
After this we took off for the Grand Palace…after getting Deeter some fancy pants so he was allowed to tour, we were off. This place was a ZOO!!! Just crazy amounts of people. But the buildings were beautiful, very ornate, but a little more subdued and less ostentatious than I had expected-very unique. We got to see the emerald buddha before we were off to Wat Phra Chetuphanto see the reclining buddha. This buddha was huge and quite impressive.
After a quick break wee headed off to Chinatown and the vegetarian festival-also a zoo! But glad we went. The streets were lined with different stalls of all kinds of different vegetarian foods, most of which were fried. And just loads of people were milling about trying different things. We got to talking to a couple of different Thai people and just had a great time.
Then we took the scariest, fastest death trap…er I mean tuk tuk ride back to the hotel ever…I swear we need helmets for some of these trips.
Saturday we were off to Chatuchuk market-arguably the world’s largest market. We ate some street foods and shopped and wandered. They seriously have pretty much anything you could ever want here…pet squirrels included:) I mean seriously, a lot of you guys cleaned up at this market in the souvenir gift department…Bella the yorkie included! After that we took it easy for the rest of the night and enjoyed a movie and just relaxing.
Sunday we went to Khlong Lat Mayom floating market-not very touristy in fact we were some of a few westerners there. We took a boat tour and again ate some incredible market food-I found some amazing soup and again delicious pork and chicken and peeled pomelos!!! Our boat tour had Riane’s asian doppelgänger on board and she thought it was super fun to take pictures with Vin Deeter! We also learned that in water lily stems there are nuts you can eat and our boat mates were kind enough to teach us and share-they were actually pretty delicious!
Later that night we tried to go to a Muay Thai boxing match but decided the prices were highway robbery so instead we meandered through one of the red light districts where we stayed to pretty well populated areas that weren’t too sketchy. This is when we discovered an Irish pub and decided to stop in for a more traditional beer. We had a Guinness and a Carlsberg and watched Ireland’s rugby team in the quarter finals of the Rugby Cup against Argentina. Man those Irish get fired up about their rugby! Then we made a pit stop at pizza hut…it was the fanciest pizza hut I have ever seen and holy cow also the most delicious. We got a normal salad without crazy things in it with eyeballs staring at me and just a regular ol’ pepperoni pizza! This was the best cheese we have had since leaving home and if you know us at all…well we love our cheeses! Then we headed back to the hotel and got ready to head out the next morning. We also bought some pirated movies…we will see how those turn out!
Also, it’s a little funny but our cab drivers/tuk tuk drivers keep having to go to the bathroom in the middle of our ride, so we stop and then they leave us in the running car for like ten minutes. I guess we look pretty trustworthy!
Today we got in another scary cab-they always seem to either have a seatbelt and no buckle or a buckle and no seatbelt-and headed off to the airport once again! We are off to northern Thailand again to Chiang Rai before heading to the beaches in the south! We both have loved every minute of this trip-just an incredible experience and more fun than we could have imagined-however, I think we are excited to get home and see our peeps and also to get settled somewhere a little more permanent than four days! But having said that we can’t wait to see what the rest of Thailand brings!