Bangkok TIme

Bangkok- What we did.

The few days we spent in Bangkok we kept busy. Due to jet lag we found ourselves crashing early at night and awake early in the morning. Mike was able to count this trip as a required travel study for school. This meant we had to visit and document things we probably wouldn't have normally seen. He met with two different Landscape Architecture firms and learned a lot. A lot of landscape architecture deals with public spaces, transportations, monuments, etc., so that is what we saw.

We stayed in the "historic' district of Bangkok. It was perfect. We were just down the street from Kao Sahn Road, a fun shopping area perfect for random Thai souvenirs and people watching- lots of white people here. 

MBK- MBK was a large mall centered around a shopping district. Here we had the chance to enjoy some Swensens ice cream and an air-conditioned building. I couldn't get enough of the mangoes there. They were incredible and tasted nothing like what I have had before. I lucked out, visiting in mango season. 

Weekend Market- Saturday we went to an incredible market, it was fun to shop and I got great souvenirs. 

Night Bike Tour- I loved this. We had a great tour guide that took us along back streets at night to visit some of the temples. 

 It was cool being on the temple grounds without all the crowds of the day time and our guide was able to provide us with great background on the places we visited. 

 On the night ride we also stopped at the flower market, it is open every night and there are tons of people there preparing flowers. In Thailand Buddhism is the national religion and so there are spirit houses on virtually every piece of property. The Thai people leave food, water, and flower leis there as sacrifices for the spirits and so the streets always have people selling the leis. 

 Sunday we had the chance to attend a branch in Bangkok with one of Mike's former companions. It was amazing to go to the church and feel such peace. It felt like home to me. During church I started getting so drowsy. It turns out I had "overdosed" on my motion sickness patch. I had put a new patch on in the morning, but since it takes 4 hours to kick in, I didn't want to take the old one off yet. Well I forgot about it until all of a sudden I couldn't keep my eyes open. After church we met up with one of our best friends parents. Jake is here going to school so we went out with his parents that live in Bangkok. I felt so bad because all I wanted to do was lay on the floor and sleep. My vision was blurry and no one was speaking English! I really liked his parents though! 

Jim Thompson House-Jim Thompson was an American that had a great impact on the Thai Silk industry. He created a beautiful house mixing traditional Thai architecture with American. Jim Thompson would be alive today, but he has mysteriously disappeared. I would recommend it to anyone going to Bangkok. 

Suan Pakkard Museum- This museum focused on pottery and traditional architecture. It was neat, but not one of my favorite places we went. The tour guide kept having us sit so he could take our picture. :)

Terminal 21- The coolest mall I have ever been to. This mall is themed like an airport. When you enter you get a map that looks like a passport. Each level is a different country and all of the decorations and shops coordinate. I had to come to the understanding that I am way too fat for any Thai store. In Thailand it isn't considered offensive to call you fat. I did find one store I could have fit into on the London floor. It was called Phat Fat :)

King Rama's Park- One thing I learned very quickly, was that everyone absolutely adores their King. He has been King since he was 19 and he is almost 85! His picture is on billboards and signs all over. We visited his park in Bangkok. It was very beautiful- if only it hand't been so blasted hot!

The night before we left Bangkok we went out with Mike's mission companion Tawit and his wife Mui. I loved Mui. She is an English tutor and so we could converse in English! They were so nice and I really enjoyed our double date. We went to Siam Paragon for dinner and then saw The Avengers.