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Published: January 5th 2007
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Upper Terrace
This area holds four main monuments. December 28, 2006
We left the southern island of Koh Samui and headed north to the big city of Bangkok. The flight was roughly 50 minutes; although it felt a lot shorter because as soon as the plane finished climbing, they served us a large lunch, we ate it, and then landed. Best flight ever! (Minus the fact that we were leaving behind the beach) The Bangkok International Airport is fairly new and pretty easy to navigate in. In order to get a cab from the airport everyone gets in a large line and waits to tell a person at a desk where you want to go. The person at the desk then fills out a form, hands it to you and then a taxi is summoned.
We were staying at a place called the D&D Inn on Khao San Road - a large street filled with backpackers from around the world (the majority of people seemed to be from Europe and North America). The street itself is pretty chaotic. You can buy pretty much anything there. From watches, clothes and jewelry - even fake documents such as university degrees and New York driver’s license. It is definitely quite
Khao San Road #1
Very, very busy. the place.
By the time we finally found our hotel and checked in, it was about 5pm. We were pretty tired but forced ourselves outside to check out our local surroundings. Probably the first thing I saw was a lady holding a sign beside a street side bar selling cocktails. The picture explains a lot about the area...haha. For dinner we ended up just grabbing chicken Pad Thai on the street for about $1. It was so flavourful that I could have easily eaten about 10 of them. Kovats later snacked on a fried grasshopper. He described it like eating an un-popped kernel of corn, with seasoning. I wanted to try one, but at that point I just couldn't bring myself to doing it. Next time!
After that we went riding around the area in a tuk tuk. For those of you that don't know what a tuk tuk is, it's an open, three-wheeled vehicle that's very common in Bangkok because of its ability to easily maneuver in busy traffic. It probably has the same engine that a small motorcycle would have. They are a must if visiting Thailand!! This one driver standing outside our hotel was always heckling
Khao San Road #2
Looking in the other direction. us for a ride, so we rode in his tuk tuk a few times while we were staying there. He was really nice and told us info about visiting the Grand Palace and other attractions.
December 29, 2006
Today we planned to go visit the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Keao (Thailand's most prestigious temple, covered in gold plating). This was an amazing excursion because the detail and architecture on some of the buildings that we saw were just unbelievable. When I look back on the pictures that I took, they don't seem real, but almost like they are something out of the Wizard of Oz or some type of imaginary world. I'll let the pictures do the talking...
December 30, 2006
This was our last day in Thailand and it was a little depressing to be leaving. Our flight left late in the afternoon so we had some time to doing a little sightseeing. We got to see the Lucky Buddha, a few clothing shops (the tuk tuks we were in get sponsored by these clothing shops, so if we go in, the drivers get gas vouchers) and a jewelry factory. This was kind of
Drink Lady
This lady had a bar on the sidewalk and her sign wasn't lying. Very convenient... annoying because we told our tuk tuk drivers that we didn't want to see any of this, but I guess it's how they make money, so they took us anyways. Finally we made it to a destination that we actually wanted to check out. We went to what is known as the Weekend Market. This is apparently one of the largest areas to buy pretty much anything, new or used. I feel I only got to see a fraction of it though because it was so crowded that it was hard to move around. After an hour or so of that we called it quits and headed back to Khao San Road before leaving for the airport.
I realize this posting is a lot less detailed, but typing and uploading all these pictures really is a chore and I'd like to think I have better things to do with my time (but really I don't...). Next we were headed back to Seoul where we would spend New Years by City Hall with a million other people.
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