.jpg)
Bangkok is a very unique city. The richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor all live and work together in very close proximity. We would walk down one street that would be covered in dirt, trash, feces, with stray dogs fighting for food, and then we would walk around the corner and there would be an eight-story mall housing some of the worlds more luxurious and expensive products.
It is very easy to see why there are so many power outages in Bangkok.... I don't believe those power lines are up to code! But one block away from this pole with the hundred power lines was a mega-mall that was endless.
One floor of the mall was devoted to only car dealerships. Every top dealership in the world has their own store with the most expensive cars they produce waiting to be purchased. Some of the cars cost more then a million USD.
Bangkok is a crazy place right now. I think it will be very interesting to see how the city changes in the next 20 years.
I flew to Bangkok Friday night after school. In Bangkok I meet up with Logan from California and James from New York. Matt also joined us on Saturday after he had a mid-term the professor gave out Saturday morning. (Only in Asia do the professors make you come in on the weekend to take a test....)
We spent our first day in Bangkok floating down the Chao Phraya river on a long tailed boat which flows through the cities downtown. The majority of old ruins and temples were built along the river hundreds of years ago, so the best way to see them is by boat. The river was very dirty and polluted, but for a city of 15 million one would expect that. We stopped at the laying Budda (not sure why the Budda is laying down...) and took a few pictures. The truth is I'm not the biggest fan of temples or monuments. I personally feel like there are millions of them everywhere in South-East Asia and it always seems like we visit them at the hottest point in the day, making for a very uncomfortable trip. 
monuments I think it would help if I spent a few hours learning each ones significance and history, but all of my studying time goes into school. So, I always end up walking around clueless starring at massive objects wondering what in the world the importance of it could be. Sorry for that little rant I want to have it on record that at the age of 20 I don't really appreciate temples ( who knows maybe in 50 years I will love visiting temples and look back on this blog and laught...)
Here is a picture of me enjoying a Buddha that is laying on its side for some random reason... don't let the smile
deceive you, I wasn't enjoying it.
deceive you, I wasn't enjoying it.
After a tour of the city by boat we went to the top of the State building. The State building is famous to us Americans because a scene from the movie The Hangover 2 was filmed there. It is one of the tallest buildings in Thailand offering one of the most best views of the city. We all decided it would be a great place to enjoy a nice drink to cheers our spring break to
. 
Unfortunately, it turns out we were visiting Thailand on the wrong weekend. In Thailand they have elections every 6 years and hold their elections on a Sunday. The law states it is illegal to sell or consume alcohol 24-hours before election day and 24-hours after the election. Which turns out to be from Saturday morning to Monday morning alcohol is illegal in the entire country.... what a let down for a bunch of college students on spring break in Bangkok!
After three separate fitting and adjusting session we both walked out of the tailor with ear to ear smiles. The suits are incredible. As an early college graduation and 21st birthday present to myself I decided it was the best time and place to invest in a proper suit.
The next day we visited the famous "Weekend Market". It was most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. The stats say there are 20,000 shops and it is the largest market in the world. We literally saw everything. There were miles and miles.... and miles.... of shops. From art to army surplus, dogs to cows, boxing gloves to fresh flowers, the weekend market had it all. Matt and Logan tried fried scorpions while we were there too... they said it didn't taste too bad, but there was no way I was about to try one myself!The alcohol ban was finally lifted on our last day in Bangkok. We decided to visit the State building one more time because the view was so incredible.
We also decided to splurge and each
pooled together $15.00 USD to rent out a room from one of the hundreds of 5-star hotels in the city. Randomly in the middle of dirty Bangkok streets these massive hotels rise to be 15-30 stories tall and offer the most amazing features for $50.00 USD a night.... it was unbelievable. The hotel we stayed at had a 7th floor jetted infinity pool that provided the most amazing massages. Looking out over the city of Bangkok with all of its madness from the relaxing jetted infinity pool was unreal.
That evening Matt and I went to watch a Maui Thai fight. Maui Thai is a fighting style where fighters combine kickboxing and regular boxing. Maui Thai is known around the world as one of the best fight methods and was started in Thailand. It actually a huge part of the Thai culture and there are fights held almost every night. Matt and I stood in the top rows surrounded by thousands of Thai people betting on the fights. It was an incredible experience. At one moment everyone would be sitting quietly watching the fight, the next moment they would all jump up and start screaming out new bets.
Bangkok was an interesting place. I don't think I would ever want to go back, but it was great to see once and I am thankful I got the opportunity to experience all that it had to offer.
We then left Bangkok and began our voyage to the beautiful island of Ko Phi Phi in southern Thailand.
0 comments:
Post a Comment