Report 11.1: Bangkok

Ok folks, sorry for the delay, but I have become very busy over the past few days, namely trying to catch up in classes and watching episodes of Prison Break. But with my trip to Hong Kong coming up this weekend, I suppose I should write about spring break now. So here is the first third of the trip. Bangkok.

The whole crew was in Bangkok by the time Julio and I arrived late Friday night. We went to the baggage claim and got my umbrella that I had to check and grabed a cab. It was nice cause the hostel had emailed us a paper that gave us some tips and some Thai words to tell the driver. Our driver was rather impressed with Julio’s Thai talking ability. Once at Big John’s Backpacker Hostel (a very nice hostel run by this big Austrailian dude named John) we found our friends and hit the sack, them in their private rooms, Julio and I in the common room.

The first day was spent touring the city. Julio, Jen and I left very early to go see a few sights and meet the rest of the group later in the day. We saw the grand palace, a few temples, and stuff like that. One of the coolest things was the golden mountain. It is just a tample on top of a hill, but it has these winding staircases that we ran up cause they were closing soon. Jen, Julio and I made it to the top and got to see a great view of the ginormous city that Bangkok is. The thing is, that in most cities you can see where the center of the city is. Take Pittsburgh for example, when you are looking at it, you see the city and then the buildings all get smaller and see that you are out of the city. Bangkok has 10 million people and when you stand on the golden mountain you cannot see where the city begins or ends. It is just tall buildings all around. After our quick walking tour of the city me and Jen went to a Thai masked dancing show, although it was a little expencive I figure Im only in Bangkok once so bring it on. It was really cool. After they play a video about how the King rules and every sits back down, these guys come out and sing stuff while other people dance around. The story was about king Rama and his main muscle Hanuman the white monkey. Basically some evil thing steals Rama’s wife and the white monkey goes in a lays down the law. Then there is a huge war where the white monkey dominates. So that was really cool and bought a book about it so you can see what exactly I am talking about. After that it was back to the hostel and off to sleep.

The next day we woke up even earlier. After some negociations with a taxi driver, Jen, Alicia and I headed off to the floating market, about an hour and a half drive out of the city. But wow was it worth it. There is a network of steams and river that all these boats come together. Some people have there shows just right up against the water, some people have there boat full of goods and stuff, some have a stove and are selling food, while others just rent the boats and take tourists around the market. It was a lot of fun. And I bough t a wooden bowl with an elephant on it. The highlight would have probably been the lady that gave me a massage in an attempt to sell me tiger balm. Boy was she angry when I didn’t. After that we went back to the hostel and after hanging out there for a while we went to another market to walk around. While there Sascha and I had my favorite satay so far, and that is saying a lot, because everywhere you walk in Bangkok there is someone selling satay. After that market it was time to meet Aunt Marina. She is the aunt of the exchange student that stayed at my house about seven years ago who lives in Bangkok. We emailed each other back and forth and figured out a time and place and Julio, Jen, Alicia and I went to the market and all got to meet her. After I tried to get some ladies attention by calling her Aunt Marina, I walked a little further and Aunt Marina saw me and recognized me, so we sat down a little place and enjoyed the evening there. I even got to meet Mauro’s cousin Gabbi as well. After we had talked for a while, we all climbed into Aunt Marina’s party van and she drove us back to our hostel on her way home. The next day started early and we were off to northern Thailand…

To be continued