Thailand: Bangkok

After arriving at 3am on the cheapest flight I could manage, I slept for a few hours then we got right to sight seeing on our first day in Bangkok.

We got off in the centre, then walked towards the temple we were going to. On the way, we were admiring the colonial architecture. Such vibrant colors! I swear some of those buildings could have been in Spain or France.

We went to the Grand Palace, which is the royal palace and also a huge temple. It was the most colorful, ornate, and sparkly temple I've ever seen. Some parts had mosaic mirrored glass, some parts were gilded, and normal mosaics covered almost every other surface. It was incredible. 

One of the main shrine rooms (where, unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures) had the most incredible paintings all over the walls. The detail was absolutely incredible. We stood in there for at least 10 minutes, not speaking, just absorbing how ornate and detailed the murals, window shutters decorated with mother of pearl, a shrine made of gold and emerald, and rows of offerings.

After the palace, we walked roughly along the river.

We found various shops and markets selling beautiful and fragrant things like dried shrimp and spicy peppers.

We also found the flower market, which was gorgeous.

And, one of the things I was pretty excited to do in Bangkok was to see China town. I looked it up, and I think about 14% of Bangkok's population is Chinese. I know I had left China less than 24 hours before, but I was so curious.

Chinatown had a really cool vibe. It was much more vibrant than many parts of China I've seen. There were tiny streets crammed with food, cheap stuff probably made in China, etc. There was the main road, which had a bunch of cool neon signs in Thai and Chinese. Because it was right before Spring Festival, there were people doing Chinese calligraphy on the side of the road to sell.

Oh, and of course we had pad thai for lunch!

After all that walking around, we walked all the way back to the hostel. By this point we had pretty much see the whole center by foot. We rested for a bit, which was much needed.

 Then we headed back to the hostel. We rested for a while. Then we went out and got dinner on the street nearby. We were on the hunt for green curry, and man did we find it. We asked about the curry and the guy warned us it was really spicy. We just laughed it off and told him we could handle it. We each got a bowl. After one bite, Amy said she couldn't do it. I kept eating it. By the end I was nearly in tears and I couldn't feel my face. It was pretty good though. This is curry that nearly killed me. Well, I guess you could say it was pride that nearly killed me.

That night, we walked along the road of bars near where we were staying, which were all filled with tourists. It was kind of refreshing, to be honest, after a semester in China to see so many foreigners. We got a drink and hung out for a while.

The next morning, we got up a little later and had a slow start, which was nice. The first thing we did was get on a bus. Now, I don't know if the buses in Bangkok are free, but we didn't pay any money. There was nowhere to pay, no one collecting bus fare, and the locals didn't seem to be paying either. So, that's a pretty great thing about the buses. The other is that they are so old and run-down. As you can tell, the floor is made of wood. The windows are permanently open. It's really different from any buses I've been on before. It was pretty great though.

We headed to one of the main parks in the morning. Our (well, at least my) principle goal was to read and nap in the park. We found a palm tree by the pond and read for a while and both fell asleep. We definitely took a fairly rested approach to our time in Bangkok, because we had just finished a long semester. It was a really relaxing morning.

After the park, we walked around the center - found some street food and wandered for a few hours. We also found a cafe and rested, then regrouped and made a plan for the afternoon. We decided to go to the Jim Thompson House.  

Jim Thompson was an American guy who fell in love with Thailand after the war and just stayed there forever. He actually ended up starting up an international interest in Thai silk and started his own business. They turned the house/estate he built and furnished into a museum about his silk business and a gallery for his personal art collection. If you're in Bankok, I highly recommend it. It was one of the best museums I've ever been to.

I will forever be dreaming about having an open air, wooden house surrounded with lush gardens and filled with amazing art work. 

To get back, we realized there are boats as part of the public transportation in Bangkok. We didn't really know if we were going in the right direction or have any way to navigate after getting off the boat, but we just went and hopped on. 

The canal is decorated with really cool graffiti, which was encouraged by official(-looking) signs on the walls.

The boat was really cool. It was such a nice way of getting across the city without having to deal with rush hour traffic.

After getting off the boat, we decided to go to Golden Mount. It turns out we got there 30 minutes before closing and had enough time to run up to the top and get a beautiful view of the night lights of Bangkok.

Also, at the top of the temple, we saw some monks just hanging out. I think it looked quite cool with the modern sky scrapers in the background.

That night, we also just went to get dinner and hung out in the same bar again, because it was the nicest and most relaxed place to hang out.

The next day, we went on a day trip to Koh Lan, which I will write about in another blog post.

The day after was my last full day in Bangkok. I spent the morning in a cafe getting some blogging and video editing done about my trip to India. I went to a cafe called Chomp. They had amazing Thai-grown coffee and they had vegan smoothies. It was the perfect brunch!

In the afternoon, I went to a vegetarian Thai cooking class at a school called May Kaidee's. I have never really done a cooking class before, especially not while traveling. I am definitely going to try to do it again. It was so nice to learn to make some of the dishes I had been enjoying on my trip so far. They gave me all the recipes, so I hope to recreate them! Also, the two other women on the class were both from Chennai, where I had been less than a month before. They also had both spent time in North Carolina, where I'm from! What a small world.

That evening, I rested mostly, still tired from our island day trip the day before.

For my last day in Bangkok, I just went back to the cafe for most of the day. I worked on emails, planning the rest of the trip, and called a few people. I really enjoyed the day to myself and I enjoyed having a restful day. 

That evening, I picked up my bags and made the journey to Koh Tao!

I really enjoyed Bangkok. The weather was perfect while we were there. January is apparently the best time to go, because it doesn't rain much and it's also the coolest month, which means it was still comfortably warm every day. I could really see myself living there for a time. I think it's not a great place to stay as a tourist for more than a few days. There's not so much to see. But I really like how international it is. It's got a bit of big city and a bit of local culture as well.