On the first day in Bangkok we rode a boat that took us through the canals of Bangkok to one of the many palaces the city has to offer. It was a fun trip. At random times people in their little boats would float up to us and try to sell us something. Water taxi's are very popular as we saw many people on the river/canal. After getting off the water taxi we walked through a local market. The market had all kinds of food and goods to buy. Our plan was to go to the main Palace in Bangkok but it was a special day so that palace was closed so that the monks could pray. Instead we went to a few smaller ones. We went to one that had a massive Buddha statue. In order to get to this place we had to take a tuk-tuk. This is a type of taxi you can take in Thailand. I recommend that if you ever to to Thailand, only to ride this ONE time! Here are the reasons: 1.The drivers like to take advantage of tourists and try to rip you off as much as possible. Our hotel was very helpful when we asked them how much we should be charged when going from one place to the next. Of course the price that the tuk-tuk drivers told us was outrageous. You are able to bargain prices with them and we always got our price down to what our hotel had told us, or even lower in one case. 2. The drivers try to make you go to more than one location so that they can coerce you into making a "stop" for them which allows them to refill on gas. The drivers claim that the government gives them coupons for gas if they take you to either a jewelry or tailor shop. In the 3 times we took a tuk-tuk we went to 4 tailor shops! Compared to America tailor shops are VERY VERY cheap. Around $300 for an Armani suit. Obviously we didn't want to get a suit but we had to go into the shops for about 10 minutes each so the driver could get his coupon. Riding in the tuk-tuks wasn't a bad experience since our hotel helped us in telling us prices we should demand. Also, it was fun to ride in one because they zipped in and out of traffic. In Bangkok driving would be a nightmare. I though a lot of people in Korea rode little motorcycles. Thailand has thousands more and they are driving every which direction.
Boat trip through the canal
See the little green motorcycle/car? Those are the tuk-tuks!
Standing Buddha
Emily and I in front of the statue
A shrine to Buddha in a small temple
One of the various palaces at night
The 2nd day in Bangkok we went to the Grand Palace. This was the one that was closed the day before. The Grand Palace covers a massive amount of area and has many palaces and temples inside its grounds. To go into the palace grounds men have to wear pants. Women have to wear dresses/pants that go down to about the middle of the shin and their shirts have to have sleeves. We were allowed to wear sandals which was the only good part about the dress code! It was at least 90 degrees outside with little breeze. I've never worn jeans in that type of heat. It was crazy. I can't imagine the people who do this everyday in Thailand. This area had many smaller palaces that we visited, some you could go inside and others you couldn't. We did go into a pretty big temple but we weren't able to take pictures inside. Inside the temple you had to either sit on your feet or point your feet/legs diagonally behind you. The reasoning is that pointing your feet at anyone is offensive. I would not make a very good Buddhist because I had a hard time sitting in both of those positions! The look of all the temples/palaces in this area and all over Bangkok was awesome. Most are covered in gold (not sure if its real gold or not) and have cool architecture to them. There are also many cool statues, such as Buddhist demons, angels, etc. After leaving the Grand Palace we walked about 20 minutes to the "Reclining Buddha". The Buddha statue lays on his side inside a palace. He is 150 ft. long and 50 ft. high. It is a popular tourist attraction in Bangkok. It is one of the worlds largest Buddha statues. The 2 days we spent in Bangkok were a lot of fun. It was neat seeing a lot about the history of the city and Buddhism in general. The last 5 days of our trip we went to the beach in southern Thailand!!
Outside the Grand Palace wearing pants on a 90+ degree day!
One of the many statues
A palace inside the Grand Palace grounds
Palace with a very modern look to it
Almost like the Buckingham Palace guards. They couldn't move.
Reclining Buddha. I tried to get his entire body in one shot.
A temple that we were allowed to take pictures in.
After Bangkok, we flew down to southern Thailand and stayed about 2 hours north of Phuket, which is a popular tourist area. Our hotel was on an island called Koh Kho Khao Island. The first full day in Thailand was December 26. Many people might not know but that day marked the 5 year anniversary of the tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean. southern Thailand, especially Phuket and Koh Kho Kaoh (where we stayed after Bangkok) was hit very hard. On TV that day there was a ton of coverage marking the anniversary and showing all the memorials people were holding. It's strange to think that 5 years ago most of southern Thailand was gone but today it has all been rebuilt. One of Emily's co-workers, Elyse, went to the area where we stayed in southern Thailand to help with tsunami relief in 2004. We all stayed at the same hotel she stayed at when she came. At one of the markets Elyse was able to find a Thai girl that she had met in 2005 when she came to help rebuild this area.
Our hotel was very nice. The rooms were pretty big, the food was very good and everyone was very nice. For the most part we laid out on the beach. We did go to 2 excursions. The first one was the day after we got there. We went snorkeling out about 30 minutes from our beach. We went to 2 different spots to snorkel then we went to a little island that was nearby. The island was pretty cool. It was FULL of hermit crabs! The water where we snorkeled at was pretty clear so we were able to see many cool fish. After getting to the little island we hung out for about and hour. We ate some food and laid out. The second excursion we went on was my favorite part of the trip. We started of the day by going on an elephant trek. This was a lot of fun. I've always wanted to ride an elephant. The trek took about 1 hour or so through the Thailand "Jungle". Each elephant carried 2 people. On the first half of the trip Emily got to sit on the elephants neck/back. After a break for the elephant to wash off we turned around an went back. The way back I got to sit on the elephants neck/back. At first it was hard to keep balanced. Whenever we were going up or downhill the elephant would pin his ears back against our legs so we wouldn't fall off. These elephants were very well trained. After leaving the elephant camp we went to another site to have lunch and go on a canoe trip. The trip went through a river and took about an hour. It was nice to relax and hang out in the canoe while someone did the rowing for us! The last part of this day trip we went to the "Monkey Temple". Literally. We went to this place that had mini temples and there were hundreds of monkeys around. We were able to feed them nuts or bananas that we bought. Our guides said that their favorites were nuts not bananas. I bought 1 bag of nuts and 1 bunch of bananas. I'm guessing our guides told us that they like nuts more because they went crazy when I pulled out the bananas! I had monkey jumping up and chasing me trying to get the bananas. The nuts they didn't care for as much, since everybody had them. There was definitely an excess amount of nuts so at times it was hard to get the monkeys to take any. It was funny watching them swing from tree to tree or attacking each other. At one point, a little monkey jumped on Matt and Emily while they were trying to feed them nuts. Sadly, I didn't have a monkey jump on me. On New Years Eve our hotel had a buffet dinner and some shows/games for everybody. Our group was the life of the party, taking part in all the games and winning all the prizes! The day we checked out the lady told us thank you for making the party fun because nobody else wanted to take part in the games or activities like we did. A tradition on New Years Eve is to light up paper lanterns and let them go over the ocean. I am in a picture below with the lantern. The point is to put all of your worries into this lantern and then let it go and watch your worries sail away! Hopefully everyones worries sailed away that night. This is also the case on the anniversaries of the tsunami. People light the lanterns and let them sail away like we did on New Years Eve.
The boat that took us snorkeling and to the island nearby
Those are all hermit crabs. This island had them everywhere.
One of the elephants
Starting out the trek
Emily and I riding the elephant. She is riding on his neck.
Top of the hill just before we walked down to the river to canoe
On the canoe
2 of the many monkeys we saw
New Years Eve
About to let my worries sail away!
Overall, the trip was a ton of fun. I couldn't have though of a better way to spend the week off from school. I've traveled to a part of the world I would probably have never thought of going to until coming to Korea. The trip to Thailand definitely ranks up there in my top 3 trips ever! Now its back to teaching again tomorrow. I did however wake up this morning and look out the window and there is about 3 inches of snow which is awesome. I was told it doesn't snow too often in Seoul since its such a big city it melts away. Hopefully the snows stays for a few days! I'll have to start planning another trip. We have a long weekend over Valentine's Day in February. The Orange Bowl is tomorrow, go Hawkeyes!!! I'm going to do my best to find a way to watch and follow the game at work tomorrow, since it starts at 10 a.m. for me. Happy New Year!
I'll be wearing my Hawkeye shirt under my work clothes tomorrow!
