wednesday 2 september
wednesday night was our arrival into bangkok. we took the budget airlines, tiger airways, which actually was pretty nice (and by nice i mean clean and efficient) and suited us well for a 2 hour plane ride. because we got there pretty late, we didn't do much except for check into our hotel, grab some dinner, and hang out in our rooms while planning excursions for the following day.
everything in thailand is incredibly cheap but that also comes with a price i suppose. the occasional scurrying bug in your taxi, the low levels of cleanliness in restaurants... thankfully though, our hotel was very clean and the staff incredibly friendly! they gave us all sorts of information on how not to get ripped off while in thailand and told us exclusive tourist tips.the view from our hotel lobby
you have to be really careful not to get lied to by taxi and tuk tuk drivers here because a lot of times they refuse to run the meter. then you have to haggle for a price with them to get to your destination. additionally, taxi drivers lie and try to tell you that a certain tourist attraction is closed. they then tell you to go visit this temple, about an hour's drive away, and that they'll offer you a great price for their services. along the way they might stop at a store or tourist attraction where they get commissioned to bring foreigners and have them spend lots of money. we did our research beforehand though, so we were relatively safe from these traps...and finally, even though it's technically the rainy season in thailand, the weather while we were there was absolutely perfect! it downpoured for about 30 minutes one of the days, but that was really it. hopefully, that's what the rainy season will be like in other places too...
thursday 3 september
we woke up at 630 in the morning to go to ayutthaya, the ancient capitol of thailand. we took a taxi to the train station and then a 2 hour ride to ayutthaya from there. our ticket cost us 25 baht both ways... the equivalent of not even 1 dollar. along the way, we got to see a lot of the landscape.
ayutthaya is in central thailand and is filled with old temples and ruins. first we took a ferry across the river and then hired a tuk tuk for the afternoon and drove around to the various sites.the river we crossed in our 3 baht (1 cent) ferry.
waiting on the sidewalk to flag down a tuk tuk
riding in our tuk tuk
our first stop was a buddhist temple with a giant golden buddha -- i want to say 60 feet, but i could be wrong
second we went to visit some ruins of a sacred monastery that was burned down during a war in the 18th century
next we went on an elephant ride --- one of those tourist attractions that commissions taxi and tuk tuk drivers. after we rode the elephants for 400 baht a person, our tuk tuk fare magically lowered from the bargained deal.
after the elephants we went to another ruined temple. pretty much all of the tourist attractions here revolve around buddha.
after spending the afternoon in ayutthaya, it was time to come back to bangkok. it started raining just as we boarded the train, and we thought we were safe from getting wet, but in true 3rd class fashion, our train rained on the inside as well.
upon our return to bangkok, we headed off to dinner and then to the night market near the business district, a place called patpong. the shopping was fun and i bought a lot of souvenirs to bring back home, but patpong is a little sketchy. there's a long row of bars and brothels up and down the street and people are constantly hounding tourists to come for a "looky looky at the naked girls." um... no, thank you. unfortunately, i didn't take any pictures at the night market because well, i didn't want to get my camera stolen.friday 4 september
on friday we were off to the grand palace! a place bedazzled with all sorts of grand jewels and sparkly glass. along the way though, we stopped at a couple of other sites.
the first was this park overlooking the river.
then we stopped at ... yet again, another temple.
and finally we arrived at the grand palace! once we got there, i had to put on a long skirt and button down shirt courtesy of the grand palace. no shorts or sleeveless shirts allowed. it was really, really hot. :(
afterwards, we took the river taxi & skytrain to silom, which coincidentally, was about 2 seconds away from patpong.
we clearly could not trust these food carts around the streets, so we ended up going to the only clean eatery around: mcthai's!
afterwards, the guys went off to watch a thai boxing match, and margot & i went to watch a thai dance. unfortunately, no cameras allowed, which was a shame, but heres a picture of the royal theatre. it actually looks kind of ghetto... i was expecting something... more... royal.
the traditional thai dance is called khon and apparently you train for it starting at a very young age. the costumes are really cool and the dancing is kind of slow, but still fun to watch.
saturday 5 september
on saturday morning margot and i went to a thai cooking class! it was just the two of us at a restaurant called may kaidee, a vegetarian health restaurant. the class was 3 hours and we learned how to make like 10 different things. everything from green chili paste and pumpkin hummus to tom yam soup and phat thai.
after our class, margot, anande, and i went to chatuchapat weekend market. it was so crowded and sold everything imaginable from clothes to teapots to pets!
i got a ton of things from thailand, partially because they have really interesting things, partially cause they were cheap, and partially because singapore has no exciting souvenirs to offer. here's all the stuff i got while i was there! (minus the postcards... which, with the thai post... will maybe reach you all in a month.) guess which one is yours!
For more pictures, check out my facebook album! This is only half of the photos, but I'll upload the other half soon & will add the new link :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022832&id=1572450070&l=375744c2c2
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