It’s been a dream of mine for quite some time to go to Thailand. I think the first time I was really intrigued by it was in high school. There was a girl’s night at Christine’s house and we watched Brokedown Palace, which is movie where two girlfriends go to Thailand and accidentally have drugs smuggled into their backpacks. They get arrested and thrown in jail and in the cliffhanger ending, Claire Danes’s character begs for the release of her friend and agrees to take on her sentence as well. The movie struck a chord with me, not only because of the story, but also because of the exotic setting: Thailand. It was amazing and a little scary (being that you could die if you try to smuggle drugs).
Since then, I’ve developed a love of Thai food and seen various other movies that depict the awesomeness that is Thailand. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be going there on a “weekend” trip. Even now that I’ve been, I still don’t really believe it. In preparation for our trip, Brian and I watched “The Hangover Part II” as a list of things NOT to do. It wasn’t as funny as I remember, but still, it had it’s moments.
We left on Friday night from KL and arrived at the Bangkok airport in time to catch the last city train to the station nearest to our hotel off Sukhumvit Road. In the end, we had to take a taxi from the rail station because the light rail wasn’t running at the late hour we arrived. Our hotel room was nice and the bed was super comfy. We both passed out pretty much immediately.
We woke up at a fairly reasonable hour and headed to Starbucks to grab some breakfast and coffee. (yeah, yeah, I know, how LAME, but every Starbucks we go to has different stuff and it’s kinda cool). Planned out some stuff to do for the day, starting with visiting temples and ending with dinner. Got on the light rail and headed towards the last stop on the blue line after asking a friendly guy at the info station how to get to the river.
On our way to the river we came across a man who, at first, seemed genuinely interested in helping us to get to our destination. Then he informed us that there was a celebration of sorts going on and therefore all the stops along the river would be closed and that we should take a tuk tuk to the correct dock. And it was unsafe to be walking around. Only 10 baht per person! Yeah, right. I had be warned by wikipedia, Brian, and Michael Velez that this was a scheme. Brian said no, and we walked on.. finding our dock a few minutes later. A quick visit to the information center inside the River City Mall and we were sent in the right direction to get a water transport down river to the Golden Palace and other temples.
We bought a one way ticket down to the Golden Palace and headed out, packed like sardines in a rather large water taxi. Along the way we spotted a few temples and the water was extremely choppy. Luckily, due to our size, the ride itself was rather smooth. After arriving at our destination, we disembarked and headed through a maze of food stalls to the outside world.
After examining the map, we found our way to the Golden Palace where we were greeted by a lovely golden sign and a poster informing us that our clothes were not suitable for entrance. Oh well. We found that this was the case everywhere, so we did not actually enter a single temple. You cannot wear shorts and your shoulders have to be covered. I was wearing shorts and a sleeveless blouse, so no go. You can rent clothes, but let me tell you, it’s freaking hot in Bangkok. It’s about the same temperature as KL, around 90 with 90% humidity. No bueno for pants.
We walked around for awhile trying to find the celebration that the guy had told us about earlier. Found what looked like a venue of sorts and followed some people over to a big park area. Most people seemed to have flowers, which was odd. Made our way to an entrance and discovered it was, in fact, a graduation… explains the flowers for sure. Continued to walk around and check out temples until we were hungry. Headed back towards the dock and grabbed some Thai coconuts. Hopped back on the water taxi and headed back towards River City. Decided on the way back to jump off and check out their Chinatown.
Their Chinatown puts KL’s to SHAME. Streets and streets that go on forever. One could definitely get lost. And what Chinatown wouldn’t be complete without a dragon show and motorcycles trying to wind their way down the tiny people filled streets?
Found our way back to the light rail and headed to the Chatuchak Weekend Market towards the end of the green line. After some misdirection and then some redirection, we found an entrance and proceeded to be completely overwhelmed with the over 15,000 stalls. One could get lost in there. We did. We doubled back and went the wrong way multiple times, but the good news is, we found some awesome gifts for CHEAP! Not going to say what they are because people I got stuff for read this blog and need to be surprised, but what I found is so completely awesome! I probably should have gotten something for myself. Oh well. I HIGHLY recommend this market if you find yourself in Bangkok. You will NOT be disappointed!!
After spending multiple hours in the market, it started to rain, so we decided to head back to our hotel. There we looked up the closest, best Thailand which was right next door, quite literally. Ordered 3 main dishes, plus a soup and had one of the best meals of my life. 🙂 Red curry, green curry fried rice w/chicken in an omelette, beef noodles, and lemongrass coconut soup. OMG! Ridiculously good. 
After dinner, we headed to Terminal 21 (a really awesome shopping mall) to meet up with an old college buddy of mine… Michael Velez. Michael and I were on the same floor in the dorms at Crown College (specifically GUASS HOUSE!!) We ended up living together our sophomore year on Washington Street. He showed me his famous shredding of the chicken for enchiladas and I famously tried to burn down our apartment before he even moved in. Fun times. Hadn’t seen or really even heard from him in years and then found out on Facebook he was living in Thailand. As luck would have it, he moved to Bangkok so we ended up meeting up for a drink at a rather unusual but cheap ass bar. Good times.
After a drink, Brian and I headed back to our hotel, exhausted from time changes and walking around all day. We walked through a mini red light district, which was rather interesting, and then crashed out for the evening before 11:30pm. A fun filled first day for sure!
Kari's Adventures 