Bangkok - Round 1

16 November 2011

I got into Bangkok and as such Southeast Asia today....and did pretty much nothing. I didn't even grab food...I dropped Mabel off at the airport left luggage office and headed to my hostel...where I tried to stay awake for awhile but didn't succeed too long and slept the night and next morning away.

17 November 2011

When I got up I started chatting with the other girl in my room who invited me to hang out with her and her friend for the day as they hadn't seen the City yet. Always nice to have someone to go around with.

Started the day with fried coconut battered bananas...oh they were good.

The front desk of the hostel gave us a choice of taking the bus or a taxi to the Royale Palace. We chose to take the bus as it was only 7 baht....needless to say it was not cheaper. First we got on the bus going the wrong way...then we took the metro to the last stop...prior to walking a wayyyss. Anyway, it should of taken 15 minutes and it took us 2.5 hours....but we got to see a lot.

When we got to the Palace we were told it was closed...by a guard...of course this doesn't necessarily mean it was actually closed but since we had been told about a good deal on Tuk Tuks we tried our luck...we thought we had agreed upon 200 baht for 2 hours...later we found out that the driver decided to change his tune..

We went to three sights – Reclining buddha, Standing Buddha and the Golden Mount. The reclining buddha was my favorite! I think the fact that it seems crammed into the building and it is hard to get pictures adds to its allure.

Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

Me at the reclining buddha

Taking the Tuk Tuk was interesting...though traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected. There were definitely times were I was concerned but thought it would be way more hectic...we were just outside of rush hour so that might explain it.

Then grabbed a bowl of soup from the MBK food stalls...another win. I was so excited for the food prior to coming and the first day was a good start.

18 November 2011

Got up and hung out with the girls prior to heading our separate ways. They were heading to Chiang Mai later in the day and I would be heading to Malaysia. Jackie and I were craving soup for breakfast so we headed across the way from the hostel to grab a bowl from the food stand....though as we past the satay we both almost grabbed a snack.

There was no need for a snack as the bowl of noodle, congealed blood patty, chicken drummy, shredded chicken and random veggies in delicious rich broth was a huge portion for what ended up being $1 US.

I headed to the Jim Thompson house for a tour. He helped revive the craft of handwoven silk in Thailand....I went because the house was suppose to be beautiful...which it was.

Decided it was about time for another snack so grabbed some fried bananas again (half portion this time).

I already had convinced myself since there were no witnesses that I would eat myself silly today.

The fun thing about the City is that if you walk down the same street 5 times it will be different every time.

Wandered through MBK and Siam Square. Not having budget or room for ANY new purchases makes Bangkok kind of torturous...luckily I think I might be too big of everything as all the sizes look way too small for me.

Totaled up 1 chicken/congealed blood soup, 2 Thai ice tea, 1 chicken fried rice, 1 thing fried bananas, and 1 very expensive udon noodles at airport.

Not too bad for one day...can not wait to cycle tour so I can justify eating even more!!! Need to get into the fruit!

Then I ended the day by going to the airport and staying up till my flight the next morning (had planned at napping but it didn't happen. The trains stop running at midnight and I didn't want to pay for a taxi out there.