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Published: February 18th 2008
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This is our Hip Hop Album Cover
Coming soon to a music store near you: Los Creolas Today is the day to do the touristy stuff: Wats, palaces, and boat rides, muay thai. Okay, so that was a bad play on the Wizard of Oz, but Bangkok lets out the artist in you. Spending time in Bangkok has been remarkable. This city is amazing. It's so large and inviting, you feel like you can do anything. We were very excited to head out today and try tons new things. We started by taking the BTS skytrain to the river. After taking the train in the wrong direction for one stop, we were finally on our way. From the skytrain, there was a cool mall outdoor eating area. They really do malls right. When we got it the river it was overwhelming. There was a market that we checked out and all got alloy strawberry smoothies. There was a McDonalds that delivered there; I am glad they don't have those here! We headed down to the river and got a taxi up to the Grand Palace and the Wats which is in old Bangkok. The boat ride was scary to me, because there were so many people on the boat and my grandma's voice going through the back of
Random Mall from the Skytrain
This is an outdoor eatery section at a mall. Guess they are getting ready for Chinese New Year. Gung Hey Fat Choi! my head reminding me that one sunk not too long ago. Luckily, the view was beautiful and enough to assuage my fears. We saw the Penisula hotel which was gorgeous and where Nolan's parents stayed when they visited in November. There was a boat festival on the river that they watched from their balcony. I bet that was an amazing experience. The architecture is amazing in Bangkok. Old World meets New World, side by side; it's really interesting.
We headed to Wat Po and decided to hire an English speaking tour guide to make the most of our visit and we were not disappointed. Wat Po is where the Reclining Buddha is located. This is a massive statue built by one of the Ramas (the kings). Monks still live at the Wats today and if you go during certain times you
can actually see them going through their prayers. We wandered around the Wat and saw some of the most amazing sights. I am going to save most of the descriptions so and post them with the pictures. This should make Donna and Carla happy (and probably everybody else): there was a fertility statue at the Wat and Lek
The Penisula
Here is the hotel that Nolan's parents stayed out, right on the river. (our tour guide) made me touch it. If we have a boy we have to come back and leave a pineapple and if it's a girl we should leave a coconut. In the next building there was a place where you could donate 20 baht to the Wat and receive a cup of coins that you then placed in 108 cups along the wall. There are 108 principles in Buddhism and they believe if you do this you can start anew. We went to a few more buildings that held sights you could have looked at forever and seen something new every few seconds. It was mind blowing how elaborate some of the temples were. Wat Po is where they first began to study and teach Thai massage and reflexology. We decided to all get an hour long reflexology massage; and of course, it was incredible. We when finally collected ourselves enough to leave we
discovered that we had made a mistake in going to the Wat first, because the Grand Palace was already closed. Oh well, next time. That was very Buddhist of us. We began the trek home that included another boat ride, this one seeming safer and
Cool Architecture
Did I spell that right? Jeez, and I teach English the sky train home.
Nolan and Kimani headed to Lumpini stadium to see Muay Thai Boxing. I waited for Jenny at the hotel and then headed out with her. We decided to get ringside seats since she was a local and got us better prices. Our first seats were behind the camera man, so we asked to move. Next the sat us directly next to one of the judges and the only people in front of us actually worked the fight. It was an amazing sight. It was kinda like Bloodsport without the cages, but in between the rounds the Thais at the top of the stadium would stand up and yell bets until the round started. There was even a live band that played the most intense music that helped the fighters keep their rhythm. Jenny and I got there kinda late, but in time to see the last two rounds of a championship fight, then an amazing exposition that explained the different ways you could score. In Thai of course so we couldn't really understand. They two guys doing the exposition really hit each other, they weren't playing around. Next was the main event. Jenny traded her
Wat Arun
The Temple of Dawn during the daytime. It's gorgeous. seat with Nolan and let him sit ringside for awhile. The experience was one of a kind. I can't imagine how much it costs to see a championship fight ringside in the states, it only cost us about $60. It was worth it. After the championship fights, were two amatuer fights that were interesting in their own rights. Even though the crowd was starting to thin out, we enjoyed the last fight, especially. The last fight was between 2 teenagers and it was great to see some people starting out. It was an interesting perspective on how Muay Thai works.
After the fight was over we walked over to the Suan Lumpini Night Bazaar which was an amazing collection of shops and then a giant food market. You bought tickets for food and drinks and then could just walk up and down the stalls and order whatever you want. It was definitely overwhelming. Everyone got great food and we wandered through the shops before taking a cab home and hanging out at the hotel talking until the wee hours of the morning. Bangkok has been incredible and sharing it
with Jenny and Kimani has been a fantastic experience.
Chinese Guards
A lot of the statues around Wat Po were given to the Rama by China as a gift. Something about helping to distribute weight evenly. They mostly came in pairs, good cop, bad cop. I am so glad that everything worked out the way it did.
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