I was woken up by Alyssa saying that Jane and Te Tee were downstairs in the lobby. Te Tee and Jane are my good friends from LA (Te Tee is also my former work colleague and roommate) that had come out to Thailand to visit us for a few weeks of our trip. Te Tee was born in Bangkok and comes to Thailand almost every year, so it would be different to be with someone who actually knew what there was to do in a place that we were visiting. I hurriedly got dressed and headed downstairs to meet them. They were staying at a hotel not far from our hostel. I totally understood the desire to stay somewhere nicer since they were there on vacation.
Te Tee already had an itinerary for the day in mind, so we set out right away towards the boat dock. The boat took us down the Chao Phraya river where we had a nice view of some of the temples, then dropped us off within walking distance of the Royal Palace.
Once we reached the Royal Palace, Alyssa, Jane and I took the scarfs we'd been carrying and turned them into very stylish skirts since we were wearing shorts which were not temple appropriate. TeTee was also wearing shorts so he had to rent some temple pants for a small fee. The palace was gorgeous and extremely ornate. I couldn't believe how much gold they used; the entire place just shimmered in the sun.
Te Tee showed us how to bless yourself with the holy water. You dip one of the flowers into the blessed water and then sprinkle it over your head. We saw people even sprinkling it into their mouths which I found disturbing.
After the Royal Palace, we headed to another temple named "Wat Pho" to see the giant reclining Buddha. Te Tee didn't pay to come into see this since he had seen it so many times before, so we were on our own. This was a huge Buddha made entirely of gold. It was almost impossible to capture the whole thing in a photograph.
We stopped at one of the temples inside to make an offering. With a small donation, you are given two candles and insense which you attach a prayer to and place in front of the temple. We always light a candle for our mother in Catholic churches so we figured why not do one for each of our parents at the Buddhist temple since our father practices Buddhism.
After wandering through temples for a few hours, we were hot and needed a break. Te Tee took us to Khao San, one of the main shopping streets where he knew we could get some cheap food. On the way, we ran into many protests in the streets. There had been a lot of concern from friends back home about us coming to Bangkok at this time since some of the protests had resulted in violence. I really didn't even know what they were protesting until we got there and saw them in action.
The antigovernment protesters have taken several key intersections in Bangkok in an attempt to shut down the capital. They want Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down and are trying to make the country ungovernable until that happens by surrounding government buildings. So far, Yingluck has refused to resign but instead called snap elections for Feb. 2 to reassert her popular mandate. Protesters accuse Yingluck of being a puppet of her older brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Her brother came into power in 2001 and won support among the rural poor for his populist policies. However, the praise he received annoyed traditional elites and he was accused of overshadowing revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Thaksin was eventually ousted in a military coup in 2006 and convicted of corruption in absentia, which he insists was politically motivated. The current demonstrations began early November as opposition to a now halted amnesty bill that would have allowed Thaksin to return home a free man with some $1.2 billion in seized cash and assets.
Once we got away from the protests, everything was peaceful and calm. We decided to get some pad thai because it looked delicious and was only $1USD. It was as good as it looked as the lady made each order fresh for you to your liking.
We shopped for a while, although despite how cute some of the clothes were, there was no way Asian sizes were ever going to fit me. We headed to a local store similar to a Target called "Big C" where we could stock up on supplies. For Te Tee and Jane, stocking up on supplies means tons of junk food and they were excited to try all of the bizarre favors that Asia has to offer- salmon flavored chips? No thank you!
We headed back to the hostel to shower and change before we went out for the night. Te Tee wanted to take us to "Long Table" restaurant for a classy dinner, which he insisted on paying for. He knows that we have a limited budget (Jane also recently quit her job), so he wanted to treat us. Te Tee is always wonderfully giving and is such a good friend. We ordered a set menu with 13 small courses. The food was absolutely amazing! They had some of the best dishes we'd ever tasted and we couldn't have been more pleased with the meal. One funny aspect of it was that we sat on these little couches with a low table, so you took your shoes off and sat essentially on the floor. I liked it, but if you had to use the bathroom, they provided you with little slippers so you didn't go barefoot, lol.
After dinner, we headed out to the clubbing side of town. Te Tee recommended a club called "Route 66" that he likes. I think the scene was different from what he usually sees there because we went on a weeknight and so he seemed disappointed. I thought it was fine though considering. With the $30 cover, you got drink vouchers to use. Since Te Tee doesn't drink, we had a little extra to work with. The three of us got Long Island ice teas in an attempt to get our money's worth. The club had three different areas- the main dance floor was completely empty and everyone was in the larger room where the DJ was. Unfortunately there wasn't a great area to be in if you hadn't purchased bottle service and the DJ was really inconsistent with his music choices, leaving us confused most of the time. We stayed for about two hours before deciding to head back. However, we did enjoy playing with the laser lights at the exit which provided endless awesome photo opportunities.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment