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Published: March 22nd 2010
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Hello All:
I'm actually back in China now and have been meaning to do some blogging about Thailand. Thailand is just absolutely enchanting to say the least. The food is to die for, landscape is amazing and the weather is a bit hotter than I would like but still would trade any day of the week. From what I have seen, Thai people are very nice and keep smiles on their faces, after all it is known as the 'Land of Smiles'. Most Thai people speak enough English for simple communication and English is everywhere! (unlike China), which made traveling throughout Thailand completely uncomplicated (unlike China). Thai people are also deeply spiritual and Buddhist temples throughout the country were a wonder to see with all the devout followers making their prayers. Thai people are also fairly modest and rarely do people show too much skin, there are even dress codes in temples and Buddhist monks are definite centerpieces in society. They also take off their shoes everywhere, sometimes even before they enter a store and even the hospital. This shoe taking off business I didn't see so much in Bangkok as I did in smaller towns. Also, I did notice this
strange over population of dogs all over Thailand. It really took me off guard because I'm not used to walking down the street and having mangy mutts look at me as I'm trying to pass them. I did get barked at a few times, which is unacceptable for any homeless dog that needs to mind its manners but Thai people are in love with these street dogs and these things are taken care of..so, that was really different. But anyhow.
First stop was Bangkok and we spent 4 days there at a youth hostel in Sukimvit area in a swanky rich part of Bangkok. This city has the worst traffic I have ever seen, and taking a tuk-tuk or cab to the other side of town could easily take an hour or more. So we mostly walked everywhere or took the sky-train (which is pretty nice). In Bangers we visited a few temples, ate some amazing food including; ostrich, turtle, squirrel, various varieties of fruit I've never seen and a lot of seafood. My favorite was definitely the ostrich, its very lean and tender.
In Bangkok I went to Wat Po and Wat Sakt but ended up missing the
Golden Palace because they close at 3pm.???? Wat by the way is short for temple. We also ended up visiting Chinatown, I was curious to see what that was like. There is a large Chinese diaspora in Thailand (I'm officially convinced there are actually 1 trillion Chinese people in the world) and Bangkok boasts about its well-established Chinatown. But actually it was far too clean and the scenery just wasn't fooling me so I wasn't a fan.
However, I wasn't really impressed with Bangkok in general with its giant rats in the trash cans, dirty mangy street dogs shaking fleas all over your feet, cockroaches with distinguishable features, bumper to bumper traffic or the stupid addresses that don't make sense and are impossible to find.
The funnest thing I did while in Bangkok was visiting Tiger Temple, The Floating Market and Bridge over River Quai. All those destinations are about an hour outside city limits. We went with a tour group which was the first mistake as I know that Shelly and I are notorious for poor time management.
The Floating Market was cool and is exactly what it says it is, a market on water. There are
housing
houses over floating market actually many of them throughout Thailand but the one we went to was definitely touristy as evidenced by the over the top prices and the representation of every nationality on earth there. They sell mainly nice homemade art/household items. I didn't buy anything but Shelly bought a marionette dragon. After wards, in typical fashion we lost track of time and ended up getting yelled at by the tour guide who ripped us a new one for about 19 minutes. It was ridiculous, he just kept going on and on..hahah.
Then we went to Tiger Temple which was the best! It's this temple that houses monks that raise livestock and tigers. You get to touch and play with tigers and you could even feed them if you wanted to. I had a lot of fun doing that because I do in fact miss playing with my friendly felines. I got a couple of cool pictures with the tigers and I miss them dearly.
Then we went to River Quai, where I visited a Thai Independence Museum and learned some interesting history and got a sense of Thai pride. Thailand is disputed to be the only nation in Southeast Asia
things for sale
more on the floating market that has not been under the control of any European colonial power. However, there was a war with the Japanese and just like in China, the Japanese are pretty vilified here as well. Then in the same museum I came across this random room that had every Miss Thailand since 1941 painted on the wall. Independence vs. beauty pageant? help me? if I don't see the relation.
On our last day in Bangkok before setting off for the island we decided to check out the largest market in the world called Chatuchak Market. Wow. Everything is for sell there from clothes to babies (just kidding about the babies I hope). It was easily a solid 4 mile square area jammed with stalls. There was a torrential downpour and I ended up losing track of Shelly and spent the next four hours half way searching for her and half way getting distracted by all the things for sell. I scored some nice jewelry, a one of a kind nice purse and some small things for my home.
Bangkok is a one of a kind city though, every part of town has something unique about it and worth looking at.
boats
These are the boats you're in while shopping. I didn't do anything too crazy there so I missed the night life but I did see a bunch of the ladyboys that they are famous for. Bangkok kinda smelled bad too and though I fell in love with the rest of Thailand I think if I ever went back I would skip Bangkok.
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Umm Latifa
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Floating houses
Salaams Honey. Your descriptive writing skills make me want to pack up and see it now. With the floating markets, rare exotic delicacies., except the squirrel. I've had squirrel, your grandad while living in Alabama use to hunt and bring it home. Are the tigers monitored closely, I can see in one of the pictures, the one with the two tigers the personnel not really paying attention to closely. Well I say bravo toany country that managed to not get colonized by European powers. Bravo for Thailand. Whats up with the dogs there? I guess they domesticate them there.. The babies Jannah and Adam are growing like weeds. They are adorable and Yousuf and Ali have gotten use to the new additions. Miss you loads and love Ya