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Published: June 28th 2006
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flower garden
a stop off during canal tour Hey Everyone! I've been meaning to write more just never seem to find the time. This past weekend we ventured to our first movie since arriving in Thailand. Very close to where I work their is a place called Central Pinklao. It has an amazing mall plus theatre. We saw "Silent Hill" which was gratefully in English with Thai subtitles. Oh yea, get this: it was four american dollars. woo hoo! Also, I had only heard of this tradition until the movie; before certain events like movies, athletic events, and so on, they play a film clip and national song to honor his majesty, the king. Everyone stands up in complete silence for the duration of the heart-warming film. It was pretty cool. I couldn't quite picture Americans supporting our President in the same way...too bad. Oh and side note: don't go see Silent Hill, esepecially if you are in America. Not worth the eight dollars.
Then Saturday we headed out to JayJay Market again (its called something else in Thai). I pretty much love this place. It is a market so huge that it would take weeks to see it all. But sadly, it is only open on the weekends.
They have everything from furniture, fruit, clothes, lamps,...you get the picture. Everything you could ever want is at this one market...the key is to find it 😊 My little group of Americans and I are progressively getting cheaper and cheaper I think. For example, the first time we visited JayJay Market, everything seemed crazy cheap. This time, the 100 baht shirts weren't quite as exciting (100 baht is roughly 2 dollars and 50 cents) haha. Oh well... at least we all have plenty of money left. And don't worry, I've bought you all souveniers...
Saturday night....wow, doubt I can do it justice but I'll try and explain the insane-ness. haha. We almost didn't go out as we were all pretty tired of shopping. Then I had a large cup of my instant coffee and got pretty hyper, declaring to my roomies I really wanted to find something to do with all my new found energy. So we decided to go somewhere new and crazy. The first place that came to mind was the exact place our guide Boon told us not to go.....oops 😊 It is known in Bangkok as "Patpong" It is composed of two or so streets in
the center of the city lined with a large night market, many dance clubs, bars, and some not so nice places with names I definately cannot write on here. So we starting aimlessly walking down the street. We were asked about a hundred times to go watch "shows" and quite aggressively by people on the street. It was very out of character for Thai people. At first if was funny and amusing, then pretty annoying. While we were walking, one of my roommates yelled, Whoa- did you see that?! Apparently, we had all passed by an Elephant. Yes, an elephant in the middle of the market. Just chillin. You could pay 20 Baht to feed it a bunch of sugar cane so I definately couldn't pass that up! I fed an elephant on the streets of Bangkok, quite a momentous occasion. (wait, I need to tell you it wasn't full grown, but definately on its way, about 400 or 500 pounds I would guess). After that excitement we went to a dance club and once again, it played hip hop, yes! I was expecting non-stop techno at these places, very glad I was wrong. So of course, this was also
floatin market
thanks for takin us Peaor!! completely infested with foreigners. I met a very charming Irish boy who although could speak English, his accent was way to strong and I just nodded cluelessly. As the night wound down, we just sat outside the club and talked while also people watching. Note to future visitors of Patpong: don't people watch. Haha, its too crazy. I saw about six transvestites trying to hit on all the foreigners. Then I'm pretty sure I saw a prostitute make a deal with a guy and walk off, quite disturbing. We definately left a little culture shocked.
Sunday, quite different but definately fun. I finally got to meet up with Jessika's cousins who live in Bangkok. They picked us up in their CAR (doesnt sound exciting, well it is if you usually take twenty buses to get anywhere!) So anyways, in their CAR we went to eat then to a small floating market near Pinklao. Then on a canal tour on a boat much like the one I rode on at the beginning of my trip. We stopped at a temple and I finally saw my first monk "dorm" We were all starting to wonder where the many monks lived, so there
I go... Then some people at a dock served us coconut milk, basically a straw stuck in a fresh coconut. Pretty delicious.
So, I was reading other travel blogs with people in Thailand and started to get a little sad realizing the crazy things they were doing, never staying anywhere for more than a few days. But then I realized I am truly getting to experience the culture of the people and make friends here, instead of simply seeing the sites that the country has to offer. It is definately an awesome experience to be a foreigner actually living in another country, not just visiting for a week or so. You get to see so much and yet, settle in also.
Oh, and speaking of settling in...I officially have a small crush on a Thai boy that I work with 😊 Haha, I know all of you are cracking up. but i can't help it, he's so cool. He is working on his PhD right now and works at the hospital I'm at, also teaches a lab or two at Mahidol, and on top of that, working on his thesis project. He knows English extremely well which is nice because
most only know the basic terms. And I'm pretty sure that if shy, conservative Thai guys can flirt...then he flirts with me 😊 So anyways, I'll let ya know if anything develops, haha.
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Brittany Johnson
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So after reading your last paragraph I have a feeling you might be there a lot longer....lol. Have fun hun, I miss you!