here's a quick synopsis of my trip to bangkok. better (really) late than never, right?
we arrived in bangkok still feeling pretty sick so we checked into our hotel and took a much needed nap. when we woke up, we explored the neighborhood and got some eats. we headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night, hoping to feel better the next morning.
thankfully, we both felt better the next morning. we headed to the dock to catch a ferry to the grand palace. we met a very sweet taiwanese lady and chatted with her on the ride over. she gave us some tips for a future trip to taiwan.
we got off the ferry and followed the crowd to the grand palace. along the sidewalks, there were people selling all kinds of things. the weirdest being, used dentures. no one i asked seemed to know why. the grand palace was beautiful but really hot. there was no shade anywhere. thankfully, i read about the dress code and didn't have to layer on clothes like many of the other people there.
after grand palace, we walked around the area and ended up in a market. for a bit, we thought we may never find our way out. we did and no worse for the wear. we agreed that we were really hot and needed a break so we headed back to our hotel to lay by the pool and read.
after we were all cooled off, we grabbed a tuk tuk to see a "lady boy" cabaret show at a hotel. beforehand, we decided to eat in the hotel coffee shop because there was a thai Elvis impersonator. he was actually more convincing that i anticipated and he loved us because we cheered him on.
the cabaret show was entertaining. afterwards, we got suckered into taking pictures with the dancers. "tip for us?"
we went back to our hotel, feeling under the weather again. we went to bed early slept in. we decide to have an "American Day" which consisted of walking to the US embassy (to mail ourselves our souvenirs from chiang mai), going shopping in a real shopping mail, and seeing "the hobbit." it was a nice, relaxing day.
the next day, we decided we needed to get serious about sightseeing so we took the ferry and saw a bunch of wats. the first wat we visited, wat pho, is known for their massage school. we toured around and then got foot massages.
we hit up wat arun next.
climbing up and down those stairs was a bit treacherous. chinatown was and i tried durian fruit for the first time. all hotels have signs saying not to bring in whole durian fruits because they smell bad.
after chinatown, we wanted to take the ferry back to the dock near our hotel. instead we got on the wrong ferry and ended up taking a 2 hour ferry ride. once we realized we would in fact be able to get back to the right port eventually, we were able to enjoy the ride and seeing bangkok from the river.
for dinner, we planned on going to the peninsula hotel to partake in their chocolate buffet we had read about in the travel guide. there was mention of chocolate sushi and other delicious dishes so we decided to try it out. you can imagine our surprise when we discovered they had discontinued the chocolate buffet. however, they did have a huge buffet dinner available so we decided to eat there. we visited the peninsula hotel in hong kong as well so we decided we were creating a tradition. the food was delicious.
of course, after dinner we had to get a foot massage before going to back our hotel.
second to last day in bangkok. we were signed up for a tour to see the floating markets. we failed to make sure it was a private tour so we ended up on a tour bus with 50 other people. when we signed up for the tour, they didn't mention that we would be visiting other places like an elephant park where the elephants were clearly being mistreated or a snake farm where cobras and mongoose fight. we chose to stay in the bus for both of those stops. finally we made to the place were we would take long tailed boats to the floating markets. it was cool to see how the thai in that area live.
on the way back from the tour, the bus dropped us off a jewel museum/store where they try to trick tourists in to paying really overpriced jewelry. by this time, we were done. we wanted to be back at our hotel. finally, a van picked us up and started dropping people off. my friend really had to go to the bathroom, we hopped off at one of the stops and headed to an indian restaurant for food, rest, and relief. i will never make the mistake of booking a group tour again! on our way back to our hotel, we grabbed a starbucks milkshake and got a foot massage. back at our hotel, we took a quick cat nap because sitting on a tour bus takes it out of you! and apparently naps take it out of us because afterwards we felt the need for another foot and hand massage. we went to dinner at a place i had heard about called cabbages and condoms. it's a place that brings awareness to AIDS and STDs. They had sculptures made out of condoms.
the next day was new year's eve. we started off our morning laying out at the pool then got a mani/pedi. we went to the famous mbk mall's food court for lunch. you pay for tickets and then use the tickets to buy food from all the different vendors. we heard from someone that the street vendors who get popular enough then move to mbk's food court. the day wouldn't be complete without a foot massage so we got one o n the way back to our hotel. we got ready for our NYE out. we went to central world where they have concerts and fireworks. there were SO many people there. we were standing outside one of the beer gardens listening to a concert and all of the sudden people started pushing. we thought we were going to get trampled. it was pretty scary. thankfully, someone moved the barrier to the beer garden and we were able to sneak in, out of the chaos. security confronted us about being there but ended up letting us stay. we watched a thai performer and danced with some random thais. we walked the streets and watched the fireworks. around 2am we decided we probably should head back to our hotel so we could get ready to fly out early the next morning. we also took our last tuk tuk ride.
i didn't sleep at all that night because by the time we got back to our hotel and showered, it was only 2 hours until we had to take a taxi to the airport.
thailand was definitely a fun and memorable trip. i would love to go back and see the thai beaches!
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