A Weekend in Bangkok - With a Michigan Reunion!

Hi, everyone!

So although I didn't manage to post before the weekend (nothing too interesting, I'm afraid), there is LOTS to share after an amazing weekend in Bangkok, Thailand, with Chris and Lexi, two of my good friends from undergrad at Michigan.

Friday night, Chris and I landed in Bangkok a bit behind schedule, but managed to connect with Lexi in the GIANT airport, making our way to our hostel in the city (about a 45 minute drive) soon after.  After settling in, we began to explore our neighborhood, which was called Si Lom.   Although also interesting during the day, Bangkok is most fun to explore at night, both because of the markets (which really come alive after dark) and because it's about 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than when the sun is out.  We ate from a street vendor (soup - which I'm pretty sure contained offal - ordered for us in Thai by a nice German man passing by) then wandered around the night market checking out the stuff for sale.

Before heading to bed, Lexi, Chris, and I got Thai massages, which would end up being the first of three massages during our three-day trip.  Thai massages, even more so than some reflexology we've gotten here in Singapore, are NOT comfortable experiences - on the first night, I was actually stood on by the massage therapist, who kept telling me that although it hurt then it would feel good later.  She was actually right; according to Lexi, the whole experience is very similar to what athletes get when they're hurt or need to be stretched out.  Either way, I can definitely go a couple of weeks without someone digging their elbows into my shoulder blades at this point :)

Saturday morning, we woke up early to travel to the city center to see some sights, and we ended up hiring a tuk-tuk to take us to breakfast and our first stop.  Tuk-tuks are definitely the quintessential mode of transportation within Bangkok - for about 30 baht (about a dollar) or less, you can hire one for short-ish journeys within the main parts of the city (although in a city of 14 million, everything seemed pretty downtown).  Our driver thought we were funny whenever we were worried about crashing, so he kept zipping us around corners at faster and faster rates, which was - quite frankly - somewhat terrifying.

Our very first tuk-tuk ride!

After our brush with death in the tuk-tuk, the three of us wound up at a boat port, where we hired a long boat to take us on a two-hour journey through some of the more residential canal areas of Bangkok, the "Venice of the East."  Although some more land-based parts of Bangkok indicated the income level of the locals, it was more jarring to be going through these very poor areas - it was a definite reminder that Thailand is a developing country.  On this boat ride, we also got approached by many people selling wares out of boats; although none of the traditional Thai "floating markets" are in Bangkok, some people still sell knick-knacks and drinks on the closer canals.

On our boat on the main part of the river.

The long boat dropped us off at Wat Pho, home to the Reclining Buddha.  There are literally hundreds of Buddhist temples in Bangkok, but Wat Pho is potentially the best well-known.  The reclining Buddha itself is incredibly impressive - over 40 meters long and painted gold, with mother-of-pearl inlays in its enormous feet.  In addition to this Buddha, the Wat Pho complex has hundreds of smaller temples and buildings, and we spent a good hour or so wandering around and taking pictures of the beautiful architecture.

With the Reclining Buddha - all the light bits in the toes are inlaid mother-of-pearl.

After leaving Wat Pho, we took a walk to the Grand Palace, a giant complex about a 20-minute stroll away.  This is a really interesting area, as it's both the religious and cultural center of Bangkok in many ways, housing both the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (actually made of jade) and the royal residence of the King and Queen of Thailand.  The monarchy is still a huge aspect of Thai culture, and everywhere we went we saw flags flying for the royal family: yellow for the King, purple for the Queen, and blue for the Princess.  The Grand Palace complex even had a museum dedicated exclusively to the Queen and her clothes - which, considering the King has been ruling for over 60 years, were quite numerous!  It turns out that after World War II the Thai government actually outlawed wearing traditional Thai clothing, and throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the Queen (with the help of both Thai and western designers) worked to develop a new Thai national dress, which is what is seen at formal Thai occasions today.

Chris and I at the Royal Palace.

After the Palace visit, we found some lunch, tried fish pedicures (more on this in an upcoming post), visited one more temple, and went back to our hotel for a quick evening power nap.  For dinner, we decided to go to a restaurant called "Cabbages and Condoms," which is in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok, one of two main red light districts in the city.  This restaurant was actually created by the Population and Community Development Association of Thailand in an effort to promote the use of contraception in rural areas of the country, and is now a well-known (albeit a little bit touristy) restaurant in Bangkok serving really good, traditional Thai food.  After dinner, we wandered around a bit, got more Thai massages, and headed back to our hotel to get some sleep.

Mango sticky rice (my favorite!) at Cabbages and Condoms.

Sunday morning, we woke up very early to meet a driver and tour guide we had hired to take us to two locations: on elephant rides and to the Tiger Temple, both about 2.5 hours outside of Bangkok (about 50 km from the Burmese border).  Our guide was incredibly nice and super informative, and she gave us interesting facts about Thailand, Bangkok, and (of course) the monarchy during our short trip west from the city.  Upon arriving at the elephant area, we got to go on a long walk with a large, female elephant, during which our "driver" gave us each the opportunity to ride on the elephant's head, feed her, and take some photos.  After returning to the main enclosure area, we saw an "elephant show," in which a baby elephant did a bunch of tricks for us, including giving Lexi a "massage" and letting us feed him.  Although this part of the day was fun, the way that they treat the elephants at these places is clearly abusive, and all three of us left feeling a little upset at what we saw.  If you ever get the chance to go on one of these trips, try to look into more reputable places to go - they'd definitely be more expensive and I don't know if they even exist, but it's worth a shot if you can find one.

Chris loves this photo, since the elephant and I have exactly the same face!

Feeding a baby elephant - apparently, they like soy milk!

After a delicious lunch at a Thai buffet, we arrived at the second stop of the day, the Tiger Temple.  This is a monastery which has raised 104 tigers over the last decade or so, and tourists visiting are allowed to go up, pet the tigers, and take turns walking them down to a tiger lounging area.  The Temple is only open to visitors in the late afternoon, and by then the tigers are so hot and sleepy that they just nap and lounge while people take turns petting them.  The professional handlers get to have a bit more fun, playing with them and having a grand old time, but petting a full grown male tiger was definitely exciting enough for me!  Like the elephant place, the Tiger Temple also has faced allegations of animal mistreatment, but at least to the casual observer, the animals seemed a lot happier than during our morning elephant visit.

With a tiger cub - sleepy after an afternoon feeding!

We faced some afternoon traffic after leaving the Tiger Temple, but managed to make it back to Bangkok in time to spend about an hour the Chatuchak Weekend Market, one of the largest outdoor markets in the world.  Open each Saturday and Sunday, the market covers 35 acres and is home to 11,000-15,000 stalls (this number varies wildly depending on what book you read).  They sell everything imaginable (including endangered species, apparently, although we didn't see any of those), and all three of us managed to pick up some fun souvenirs, even though many of the stalls had closed up shop by the time we got there.

The rest of the evening was fairly quiet - dinner by our hostel, banana pancakes cooked by a street vendor (fried in oil with extra butter added - can't be beat), some more shopping at the night market, and foot massages (massage number three, for those keeping count).  Chris and I left early Monday morning to make it back in time for work in the afternoon, and since we've gotten back to Singapore it's just been a lot of actual work, picture uploading, and blog writing.  In terms of next updates, this week is a busy one, but I'll try to report back after next weekend, which we'll be spending on Tioman Island in Malaysia.  Have a great week!