Bangkok

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My flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok was a nice and short one. Just a couple of hours which was nice. After going through security I found the meeting point and met up with Michelle and her Thai friend Jobbi. Jobbi is from Bangkok but now lives in Phuket but was in Bangkok to visit family. She droves us out to our hotel in the suburbs. Because of all the protesting going on in Bangkok she thought it would be safer for us to stay out there.

Pictures

Michelle arrived the day before me so had everything all set up for me. After relaxing and catching up for a bit we hopped back into Jobbi’s car and we headed out to meet her boyfriend for dinner. First things to know about Thailand: The drivers here are insane and very aggressive. The traffic is always bad in Bangkok and you will inevitably sit in a car for most of your trip.

There was an accident on the toll road which made traffic even worse and we were stuck in traffic for at least an hour. We finally got to Jobbi’s boyfriend’s place. Tony doesn’t speak much english at all and Jobbi speaks very good english as she lived in Canada for a year and that’s where she met Michelle. Tony wanted to take us out to dinner at a real local Thai place.

The restaurant was right on the river and we could watch the river dinner cruise boats go by. The heat is overwhelming here in Thailand. I thought that it might get cooler at night time but sadly no. During the day the temperature is around 38 or 39 degrees and at night it’s about 35 degrees. Basically, constant sweat.

We tried green curry chicken, pineapple friend rice, chicken wrapped in banana leaves, and a couple of seafood dishes (which I didn’t try haha). I also tried Singh beer which is one of the couple Thai beers. It was quite good.

So, at home Thai green curry is one of my favorites. But it sure tastes a bit different here. It’s about 10 times spicier and some different vegetables are in it. There are little green things that LOOK like peas but taste nothing like a pea. They are a kind of eggplant and are very very bitter. Yikes! Everything was still really tasty though. After dinner we headed to a dutch bar of some kind for another drink. They also had some entertainment which was all in Thai and various performers would sing songs on the stage. I was really tired and jet lagged so we headed back to the hotel.

Since we were out in the suburbs and Jobbi was busy the next day we decided to head to the local mall by our hotel. It was huge and wonderfully air conditioned. But, everything and everyone was Thai. We walked around and looked at a few things but felt a bit lost and frustrated with not understanding anything. We had lunch at pizza hut and had an ice cream from Dairy queen which only made you feel a bit at home.

Trying to get a cab back to our hotel because it was so hot out seemed to take way more effort then it should have. We finally got a cab and headed back. Our hotel has a massage therapist so we decided to try out a thai massage. YIKES!!!! For 2 HOURS these little Thai ladies crawled all over us and we were pulled, pushed, walked on and contorted in different ways. The head massage part was good. My back was walked on and had a full on butt massage which was interesting haha.

The next day we decided to venture a bit further and we headed to the Grande Palace and the Reclining Buddha Temple. Once we stepped out of the cab it was mass chaos. People were trying to send us in all kinds of directions. They sent us to one entrance where we were told that it was closed today but they could take us to a different place if we wanted. Then other people were telling us we had to be wearing skirts so we had to go across the road and ‘rent’ skirts. But it was all just scams. Across the road you have to BUY a skirt and the palace wasn’t closed.

Michelle got fed up and went up to one of the military guards at the one entrance and asked and we found out where to go. It’s amazing that all this scamming goes on right in front of the guards who do nothing about it. Inside there are more people trying to be your guides for more money. We found out how to actually get a skirt for free inside which I didn’t need as my knees were covered as were our shoulders.

We bought a ticket and wandered around. Everything is so decorated and there is so much to look at. The pictures of these places just don’t do them justice. Outside one temple we were trying to take pictures of each other when a lot of Chinese people would just start taking our picture. Then we got swarmed by a big group who all wanted to be in a picture with us. It was such a bizarre experience but we went with it.

At one point we had walked away and 2 ladies approached us and took photos with us and then others saw this and they came RUNNING to catch us. I felt like a celebrity. We finished with the Grand Palace and headed for the Reclining Buddha. It’s a HUGE golden buddha in a reclining position with a temple built around it. It was amazing to see.

We attempted to get a cab back to our hotel but one guy wanted way too much money and wanted to take us to a gem place (another scam!). We found another cab and negotiated a price and hopped in. But the driver didn’t know where he was going and he got lost and had to ask another driver for help and then charged us another 100 Baht. Cabs in Bangkok are a huge rip off!!!!

Because of all the protesting (we haven’t seen anything though) we are heading out of Bangkok tomorrow and flying down to Phuket! Whooo hooo, island time!

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Comments

[Daddio]

Beautiful
What great pictures of such a beautiful temple!! Amazing construction and the elaborate, ornate, and detailed decorations are truly works of art!

[anonymous]

Sounds very exciting!! I wonder what the little bitter eggplants were, that's intruiging...and the massive Buddha as well! I remember visiting one Buddhist temple in Ulaan Bataar and it has a huge Siddhartha statue inside. It was GORGEOUS, made of gold and draped in jewels and scarves and things. Wish I could go back!