Hello Bangkok, Goodbye Thailand.

We are currently in Bangkok on the famous Kaosan Road. We both went on a bit of a last minute Thailand shopping spree... we both spent about $30CDN which is a lot for us over here! haha. Yesterday we went out for dinner with a friend of my moms who is living and working in Bangkok. He picked us up with his driver, and paid for our meal... a huge score for us broke backpackers! Before dinner we wandered around our hotel, which is in the middle of Chinatown. In all honesty, we were the only white people on the streets. Anywhere! After dinner mom's friend Martin dropped us off (well.. his driver did!) at an amazing night market. Every stall inside was like a trendy boutique store on Queen Street! It killed me not to buy hordes of shoes and clothes! After that we took a crazy tuk tuk to the Patong Market.. famous for it's "Ping pong shows" (yes, the ladies working there can apparently do some very creative things with their hoo-hoos... like ping pong shows, writing a letter, and something involving live fish!) This is also home to the very out in the open red light district... definitely something to see! (as per the neon sign!!)

Today we started off with a very long taxi ride to the floating markets. Our driver was a very nice man, but with the most crazy, sinister, bad-guy movie laugh EVER! He told us stories about all the jobs he has had.... including one where he was a bathroom attendant. However, it took a while for us to get what he was saying, as he kept telling us the job he did was "giving massages in toilet." !! Although we arrived a bit late to see the full morning bustle of the market, it was still very interesting and beautiful to be taken around in a boat and to have the shop merchants and other boats literally grab your boat with a hook and reel you in! We had a great time observing the Thai traditional life and buying all sorts of food and fruit from the passing boats. We some type of fried dumpling, mangosteens, lychees, bananas! Yum! Then we went to the temple complex of Wat Po... home of the Reclining Buddha. It was quite a sight to see a massive gold Buddha lounging in a temple. Their god is so much fun here :) Tonight we met our tour group for Cambodia... other than one guy from Melbourne, we are the youngest ones on the tour by at least 15 years! Average tour age is about 45!! Lots of teachers in the group.... should be interesting! And now, we finished the night shopping on Kaosan Road, having some drinks at a bar with live music, and saying "no thanks" to more ping pong show offers!


Overall, we have absolutely loved Thailand. The people are lovely and the food is to die for... especially the cheap stuff hand made from the street carts. A few quirks about Thailand we want to remember:

1. It is the year 2552 here! They obviously don't follow a Christian calendar.

2. There are stray dogs and cats EVERYWHERE. It is heart breaking, especially since they are all so cute!



3. The little kids are hilarious... this one kept trying to feed Marissa her popsicle.



4. The traditional Thai massage is amazing. Like a mix between massage, stretching, and tandem forced yoga! The Thai ladies sit right on top of you and they are STRONG!

5. Every shop, street and home has a shrine to Buddha. They regularly update them with flowers and food. Very beautiful.



6. There are 7/11 stores every block here... the most in the world!

Good-bye Thailand... we had a blast!

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 23, 2009 at 8:12 PM

    Wasn't Balls of Fury shot there? Seems appropriate

    Great adventure

    Add taxi driver to list

    ReplyDelete
  2. GloriaJuly 24, 2009 at 7:17 AM

    Wow - makes me want to for sure visit there! Should have joined you but don't think I could have kept up with you two. Glad you had a great time and were safe. Interesting photos!
    On to the next journey - how will you two ever survive back in Ontario??

    ReplyDelete

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