Weekend in Bangkok

Two weeks ago I got to take my first trip, and it was exciting.  We left early on a Thursday afternoon and headed to the airport to catch our late afternoon flight to Bangkok.  We had a three-day weekend, and I had a visa run to make so it was the perfect opportunity to head somewhere fun for the weekend.  The great place about my community here in Cambodia is there is always a travel buddy (or buddies in this case).  Pretty much as soon as I mentioned heading to Bangkok for my visa run, I had two quick volunteers who graciously offered to fly to the big city, sightsee, and eat an incredibly huge amount of Thai food.  

We arrived in Bangkok on Thursday evening, checked into our amazing (but incredibly cheap...perhaps because of recent political issues in Bangkok? oh well!), and headed out to find the famous Thai street food.  We started with some meat on sticks (is there anything better than just grilled meat on sticks, I'm thinking no) then graduated to a $1 noodle bowl with some kind of chicken concoction in it.  I have to say Thailand has some of the most amazing food I've ever tasted while traveling.  I felt like we ate all weekend.  Not to mention there was a Starbucks and McDonalds located right down the road, so we started every morning there.  It's funny what you crave in a foreign country because I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I had a McDonald's breakfast in the US.  Oh well, it was delicious and totally hit the spot in Bangkok, so cheers to McMuffins! 

On Friday (which was also a Buddhist holiday), we headed to do some sightseeing at some famous temples and sightseeing spots. We visited some amazing temples, had some great food, and just enjoyed wandering all over the old part of the city.  It was also photography heaven.  

The Royal Palace and Wats

Wat Phra Kaew

Really beautiful, intricate details on the temples. 



Wat Pho.  This is a giant golden reclining Buddha.  It was literally so huge. 



Please note my amazing outfit.  I had to rent a skirt and wear my coat.  Buddha likes conservatively dressed women, so I had to oblige. 



Street Food.  Shrimp Pad Thai.  YES, PLEASE.

Wat Arun



These stairs were incredibly steep.  It was quite the excursion to the top. Also, this is my new friend Shaz, the former Legal Intern who is staying for a few extra months.  She is super fun and really amazing.

Picture with the temple. 



I'm from Kentucky, y'all.  I gotta take pictures with a horse if I see one!

After sightseeing for the entire day, we decided to go to a movie at the mall.  First of all, it has to be made clear that Asians love malls.  Seriously, they are always super crowded, and these malls are nicer than anything we have in America.  The movie theatre is also pretty extravagant.  For example, for $30 you can sit on a reclining soft, with a blanket, get a free massage and unlimited popcorn/wine/champagne while watching a new movie.  And while we didn't splurge on this (mostly because it was the Buddhist holiday so we couldn't do the all-you-can-drink-champagne which would have been the best part anyway), we did check it out.

On Saturday, we went to the Jim Thompson house.  He was an American who started producing Thai silk products.  He loved Thailand and moved there permanently.  He combined like 6-something traditional Thai houses into one big house surrounded by lush gardens into his permanent home.  He mysteriously disappeared one day while visiting Malaysia and no one knows what happened to him.  It's kinda weird, very conspiracy-theory-ish.  Google him, it's kind of fascinating.  But anyways, his house has become a huge tourist stop just because it's super relaxing and an absolutely beautiful display of a traditional Thai home and gardens.  It was a morning well spent.



Spirit House.  Whenever you build, it's important to have a spirit house so the spirits you are disturbing have a place to live.  You see these everywhere in Thailand and Cambodia and probably everywhere else in SE Asia. 

Enjoying some fresh fruit smoothies at the cafe.  Delicious. 

After leaving the Jim Thompson house, we went to Terminal 21 which is a huge Bangkok mall that has multiple stories with each designed to look like a different international city.  They have Rome, London, Tokyo, Paris, San Francisco.  It is huge and super fancy and ever the BATHROOMS are decorated to match the theme.  It was amazing to walk around in and air-conditioned which was important since it was boiling hot in Bangkok.  I also bought my first "Asian-y" item.  See the picture of the fabulous, quirky shoes I bought below.  Bright, cartoonish things are very popular in Asia, so my shoes are very fashionable.  I thought they were adorable, and while I'm not sure how much I'll wear them in normal life back in the US, they were $9 and I couldn't resist.

After leaving the mall, we walked around and enjoyed another night of Thai street food.  I indulged in some kind of coconut curry with noodles.  YUM.  We finished the night at a rooftop bar on one of the skyscrapers in Bangkok.  All in all, another fabulous day in Bangkok.



Street market full of food vendors. 



Coconut chicken curry with noodles.  YUM.



Cutest shoes ever.  I'm sure Jess from "New Girl" would totally rock these.

On Sunday, we just slept in, had more McDonalds and Starbucks, then headed to the airport which ended up being a total cluster.  But atlas, we arrived back in PP late Sunday afternoon.  Good weekend in Bangkok.  I'm glad I went, don't know if I'll go back, but am enjoying the life of a traveler these days nonetheless.