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Published: October 13th 2008
On my last day in Bangkok, I walked around all day in the scorching heat to check out the "must see" sights. Most of them were about within an hour's walk from my hotel. I walked all the way to the Grand Palace only to find out shorts were prohibited. On my way back, I took care of some things like burning my pictures to DVD, haircut, all that kind of good stuff. I also had another terrific meal. Did I mention how much I love Thai food?
I changed into long pants and walked all the way back to the Grand Palace. I think this was the first time I ever realized that the sides of my knees are actually the first part of my leg to start sweating. Minutes after that, my calves came in second. I think I drank and immediately sweated out about 5 liters of water throughout the day. I hate dress codes, especially ones that are inversely coordinated with the weather.
But it was worth it. The Grand Palace is amazing. So was the adjacent Wat Phra Kaew and it's acclaimed emerald Buddha, all in the same complex. I don't know enough about
the significance of all of it, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. I also went to the nearby Wat Pho, home of the world's largest reclining Buddha. This might all sound boring, but it was pretty impressive. Like each of the toes about as big as me.
Later that night, by the suggestion of my co-traveler Steve, I checked out this crazy street called Soi Cowboy. I can't go into too many details, but think Vegas, with not so much gambling and elephants walking down the street.
I ended up meeting up with an Israeli girl named Luna. By the way, I think there are more Israelis in Thailand than in Israel. We took a bus up to a town called Kanchanaburi about an hour northwest of Bangkok. The town was a lot bigger than I expected but there were a lot less tourists than I expected too. There were tons of bars and guesthouses but it was all strangely empty. For $9 for both of us, we checked into the Sugar Cane, in a floating river raft room right on the River Kwai. Oh yeah, I heard there was a bridge nearby too.
That
night, pretty much the whole town picked one bar to congregate at and the rest of the places closed. There were a bunch of English expats and we watched the England vs. Kazakhstan World Cup qualifier. I also bumped into a Dutch guy I met in Bangkok.
The next morning, we took a bus up to Erawan Waterfall, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful waterfalls in all of Thailand. There are actually a series of seven waterfalls spread out in a huge park in the jungle and it's a good two hour walk all the way up. You can swim pretty much wherever you want, which was a good thing because it was so hot, but a bad thing because swimmers ruined a lot of good photo ops.
We checked out all seven waterfalls and then bussed back into town. We planned to go see a light show at the Bridge on the River Kwai that night but there was some confusion on the timing. So we never made it and I actually never got to see the bridge. I don't care though because I heard a bunch of critisism on the museum and the real
bridge was destroyed anyway.
Today, we checked out of the Sugar Cane and bussed back to Bangkok. Luna is leaving tonight to go back to Israel and I booked an overnight train to Chiang Mai. Right now, I am in the MBK center, which is easily the biggest mall I've ever seen. It's seven floors and you can buy absolutely anything you can imagine; everything from plasma TVs, to metal sculptures, to cockroaches, to cell phones. And I seriously think there are more cell phones in this mall than there are people in Thailand. On floor 2, there is the Mobile Mart, which is just a countless amount of shops selling every cell phone ever made and every accessory imaginable. I don't know how they all stay in business.
Somewhere along the way, someone told me they saw Dark Knight (the new Batman film, for those of you who live in a cave (not that that's a bad thing if it's like the cave hotels in Turkey)) at the cinema in the MBK center. They also said it was the nicest theater they've ever seen. So I purposely booked the 10:00 pm train so I could see the
movie first. But they stopped screening the movie sometime in the last three days. So now I still can't see it and I have several hours to kill. I even managed to see a leaked copy of the new, unreleased James Bond film, and I still haven't managed to catch Dark Knight. I saw it advertized once in Turkey but it was dubbed in Turkish. So I think I'm going to see Body of Lies in a few minutes. Oh, word has it that, before the film starts, you have to stand up and salute the King or you get arrested.
So the big change of plans, you ask about? I've decided to cancel Australia and do New Zealand instead. Why? Because I don't want to rush through Asia just to give me enough time in Australia. And I plan on getting my diving fix in Thailand anyway. And New Zealand is cheaper and allegedly has the best scenery on earth. So I'm spending an extra week to two weeks in Asia and then about two weeks in New Zealand before heading to LA.
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Mom
non-member comment
Love the waterfalls!
I love the waterfalls, and I especially enjoyed seeing you in a few of the pictures. It's good you're extending your time in Asia, as you have looked forward to all of these places so much, why rush through them. I've heard from many people that New Zealand is absolutely beautiful, and a lot more afordable. Keep sending pictures...have fun, stay safe!! Love, Mom xoxo