Bangkok

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Arriving in Bangkok, I waited in the airport for the rest of the group to land. We took an hour long bus ride to our hostel in the city, Nappark. With this being my first experience in a hostel, I was a bit nervous as to what it would be like. But when we got here, all the anxiety disappeared because the place is so nicely kept and clean. Also, we've met so many friendly people from all over, and it's entertaining to hear everyone's different accents and stories. Exhausted from the day of traveling, we rested before Jen showed us around the city. We walked around Khao San Road- a busy area with restaurants, bars, and plenty of vendors. Unlike Koh Samui, the vendors here are very persistent and even yell at you when they want you to purchase something! It's kind of amusing... We got street food for dinner, and spent the rest of the night at a packed bar.

The next day, we awoke to construction again! I guess we just can't escape it. Quickly showering and getting ready for the day, I grabbed the essentials. Then, I ordered an omelet from the cafe in our hostel and we made our way out to the Grand Palace, which was built in 1872. For 150 years, it served as the King's Royal Palace, but nowadays it is used for special ceremonies and visited by tourists daily. As you can see in my pictures, the Grand Palace is quite ornate, and by looking closely you'll be able to appreciate all the detail in the architecture. Within the palace there are multiple buildings and temples, along with small shrines where people can worship. The main attraction in the palace is Wat Phra Kaew, the temple of the emerald Buddha. In here, there's a small- but very famous- emerald Buddha, which dates back to the 14th century. In this temple, we weren't allowed to take photos, and they really enforced the rules. Visiting the Grand Palace was a perfect opportunity for me to work on my final portfolio for photography since I am featuring pictures with different varieties of textures. For this, the palace's architecture offered so many different photos.

After visiting the Grand Palace, we walked around a bustling market to buy food. The bright orange mangoes caught my eye right away, and when I saw how cheap they were selling (50 bahts), I was sold. It's funny here- they don't really give you forks with the fruit, but instead a tiny wooden spear. As you can imagine, I got messy and sticky, but every bite was totally worth it! Then, we walked all the way back to Nappark, relieved to get some air conditioning after spending the day in 90 degree weather.

Later that night, we met for class at a Japanese sushi bar. My stomach had been upset from previous days, so I ordered something simple I knew I could handle: Thai basil stir fry with rice. It was spicier than I expected it to be! Class lasted a few hours and we shared some great discussions- both with poem assignments and a series of photos for a project.

Then, we got dressed up..not really dressy at all..for a night out in Bangkok! Clubs and bars light up the streets along with vendors selling late night stir fry and "pancakes" which are basically just crepes. We originally wanted to go to the famous Sky Bar where Hangover 2 was filmed, but instead we took the idolized Tut Tut to another side of town for some other clubs. Tut tuts are a huge part of the culture here- they are smaller than golf carts but drive tourists around on main roads. When we got to the club, we weren't expecting to be denied at the door, but all of us weren't dressed fancy enough and only a few had brought IDs. Taking a cab back to Khao San Road, we had better luck with other bars. The first one we found was playing up beat remixes, so we decided to stay! Befriending a large group of Asians, we extended our table becoming the biggest group in the restaurant! They were a lively bunch, playing the silly game "suck and blow" with napkins from the bar tables.. It was hilarious and some of group even joined in. We checked out another club, Lava which is found in a dark, smoky basement. Nauseous from the cigarette smoke, we didn't stay here long even though the music was fun!

Bangkok really doesn't sleep, so we back came around 4 to rest up for our activities the next day.

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