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Published: August 12th 2008
So I made it to Thailand for the next leg of my journey!
Our last night in Kathmandu we went to Helena's, one of our favorite restaurants, and I had my last dal bhat. It was delicious! But sad that I might not ever have it again. The last morning in Kathmandu Kenny and I were awakened with a surprise birthday breakfast by the rest of our group (since both of our birthdays are on the 17th, one week from our last day in Nepal). We had found a nice bakery the day before so they got us peanut danishes (amazing!), chocolate brownies, banana cake, and cinnamon rolls. So we all sat in one of the rooms on the beds and had a nice last breakfast together. They also got me a pineapple, bananas, and a pomegranate since I'm a fruit person which we ate over the next couple hours and since Kenny is a sugar person they got him a big bag of White Rabbits, amazing candies that I've only ever seen in Nepal. It was a really sweet idea and a good birthday surprise! Thanks all of you for doing that!
Our last morning was spent getting last minute
gifts, food for airport layovers, and packing. Then of course we had to say goodbye. I was the first to leave at noon which I guess is better than being the last to leave, but still. I had an amazing group and it was a great way to start my year so of course it was sad that it was over. I want to take everyone along for the rest of my trips! But I'm also excited for the rest of my upcoming adventures!
So I got to the Kathmandu airport and flew to Delhi for a 9 hour lay-over before continuing on to Bangkok. Guess what flight was leaving about 20 minutes before mine? A direct flight to Bangkok! And instead I got to spend 9 hours in Delhi! Lame... I guess it was cheaper this way. The layover wasn't too bad. Jet Airways actually took really good care of me! When I got off the plane they wrote down my luggage tag numbers so that they could store my bags and then took all of us who were in transit up to the transit lounge. It was basically like a normal airport waiting area. I found a spot
with 2 rows of chairs facing eachother basically pushed together so we all were sitting on one row and had our feet on the other. For sitting in an airport it actually wasn't too bad. I ate all my snacks, caught up on my writing for the DC internship (finally), listened to my ipod, and read my book. I also talked to a couple people; people who are traveling by themselves tend to be friendly and have good stories! Then 2 hours before my flight left someone from Jet Airways came and took my ticket and passport and checked me in. Then they brought me my luggage so that I could make sure they were the right bags and then I went through security and got on my airplane!
In Kathmandu they only let a couple flights through security at a time. There's only about 4 gates though I guess. There's a waiting area on one side of security where you wait until about 45 minutes before your flight when your flight is called and you go through security and then wait for about 10 minutes before boarding. It was kind of a weird way to do it but I
guess it keeps security lines more controllable. They also went through every persons' bags as we got on the plane. I thought the security would be more relaxed in Nepal but I guess not.
When I got to Thailand I had to wait for almost 2 hours for my transfer because we were waiting for another woman whose flight was delayed. So I got to the hotel at about 10. Brendon was gone from our room and there was only one key, but luckily they were about to go in to clean when I got there so I was able to get in. Then I took a nap until Brendon got back at noon. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Bangkok, mostly temples.
The first thing I noticed in Bangkok was that there were a bunch of open gas stations. In Nepal it was uncertain when there would be gas available so when a gas station got some there would be huge lines going all the way down the street of people trying to get gas. Not a shortage in Thailand apparently.
The first thing I did after leaving the hotel was buy fruit: pineapple and guava, both
delicious! There are fruit vendors everywhere! I think I'm going to like Thailand! Then temples. We went to Wat Intrawhan (Standing Buddha) first. It is a 40 meter tall Buddha standing outside of a couple temples and it looked pretty impressive. We also went to the Wat Mai Amataros temple. Then we got a tuk-tuk to take us around to 3 more places. At Wat Parinayok (Lucky Buddha) there was an English school teacher inside who talked to us for a while and showed us how to do the standard Buddhist prayer, so know we're going to be lucky since we were in the Lucky Buddha temple. People in Thailand so far have been really friendly! They like to talk to us and give us advice which is usually helpful. We're starting to think that maybe they get some sort of cut if they take us to a tourist place though because everyone is always checking to see if we have our tickets and hotels already taken care of. We also went to Somanas Vihara (Black Buddha, but it was closed. Then Wat Saket and Phukhao Thong (The Golden Mount). From the top we could see most of the city.
It looks pretty cool to have temples interspersed amongst big buildings. In between those 3 temples, our tuk-tuk driver took us to 2 government stores. Apparently they get free gas and free food if they take tourists to these stores, even if we don't buy anything. So we ended up getting all our tuk-tuk transportation for free since we got our driver free gas. It worked out well for everyone!
Then we walked around some more and went to Loha Prasat which we think is just another temple (it was closed) and the Democracy Monument which marks the 1932 transition from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. We also saw the Thailand United Nations Office. It was an actual UN building, not just the offices of a department within the UN, so I guess the UN has a Bangkok location. I never knew that.
We got delicious ice cream and walked down Khao San Road which is basically tourist capital. We had dinner in a little restaurant and it was delicious! Then we went to Sanam Luang, the royal grounds. The 12th is the Queen's birthday so we heard there were going to be fireworks, but there ended up
not being any. So we just went back to our hotel because we were tired. Our hotel is very nice - warm showers, air-conditioning, soft pillows, a safe.
This morning (the 12th) we continued our explorations. We tried to find breakfast and first got what we though were a couple chicken skewers. I'm not sure what it really was but it just tasted like pieces of chicken fat. Gross. Then we tried another one. This one was actually chicken, still on the bones, but still not too good. Finally we found a little stand where we got a bamboo-chicken curry with rice. It was actually quite good but EXTREMELY spicy! And when I say spicy I mean spicy! Brendon was even having trouble with it, actually more than me. I think Nepal hardened me. We had to get some pineapple after. Later in the day we found a whole section over by tourist street with little eating places so we'll go there in the future! No more skewers though! We were kind of thinking that skewer kind of food was what street food was but really I think it's anywhere that is like a little stand but then can
have places to sit as well. Like what we had for breakfast. For dinner we had gyro-like sandwiches that were delicious! We also found amazing fruit smoothies.
Enough about food. We went to the Anantasamakhom Throne Hall. There was a big fair set up in celebration of the Queen. There was a bunch of food to buy and crafts. There was also a pavilion all about the Queen. It was kind of like the Alaska State Fair, just smaller and without rides. Brendon tried another chicken skewer. We are definitely giving up on them. There were hundreds of people waiting in line to go in the throne hall but we couldn't really figure out why. We think there might have been a special display, but we asked if the Queen was there and she wasn't. So we decided we didn't want to wait in line and would go a different day. We also went to the Marble Palace but we couldn't get in. We then took a tuk-tuk who ended up getting completely lost and driving us around for a looong time through the pouring rain. Eventually we ended up at our hotel. In the evening we went to the
Queen's birthday celebration. We saw the Prime Minister! He gave a speech and everyone sang the national anthem and lit candles. The Queen wasn't there, but the celebration was still cool. There are usually big parties and fireworks, but not this year because the King's sister died a couple months ago. And now we're using the computer. And then probably bed and more exploring tomorrow! Wow, I wrote a novel!
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kirsten
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so..i am jealous of all your delicious food-business. ridiculous!! haha. no but really! you are making me really hungry dear. :] i was talking to margaret at school before registration, and i told her we should have a 'where in the world' map thing where we can mark where polaris students and graduates have gone all over the world! then we can have some kind of student-traveling-network, for questions, and sharing of experiences and etc. :]]] oh oh oh. and ummmmm. any chance you could sent one of those peanut danishes my way?? haha -k