We began our travels in Bangkok. In retrospect, starting in Bangkok is the best way to see the city because it is very hot and overwhelming, but at the begninning of vacation none of that matters. We stayed at a really nice hostel near Khao San Road called Nap Park. Khao San Road was pretty intense - a ton of shopping and people. There were a whole bunch of food vendors selling essentially the exact same things: pad thai, spring rolls, or fruit juice. All were amazing. It was very interesting being in such a tourist heavy place. Suddently, our foreigness was nothing special. All the hand gestures, bowing, and Korean words we have learned were obsolete. I was surprised at how un-asian Thailand seemed. I suppose my mental image of "asian" is really "North Asian". If you think about how different North America and South America are, the same goes for Asia. I found a lot of things were more consistent with my mental image of India - from the way people bowed to the way people look. Obviously I only barely scratched at the surface of Thailand and was always in pretty touristy places, so I really don't feel like I learned much about real Thai culture. Either way, everyone was quite nice but obviously the hospitality offered to a local teacher will be more than that offered to tourist number 500000.
Our first day we went on a little tuk tuk tour. Tuk tuks are the little 3 wheeled vehicles. In an attempt to attract tourists and legitimize tuk tuks, the Thai government has put into place a system where they bring tourists to a whole bunch of sight seeing places for a very low fee. In exchange, they also bring us to Thai stores that sell official Thai silks and jewelry, where the tuk tuk drivers are then given free gas. This ensures we get cheap rides around the city, Thai silk and jewelry places are given much more business, and tuk tuk drivers get their gas. It's win win! So day 1 we went to a whole bunch of gorgeous temples. After the cold greyness of Korea, my senses were on major overload. Everything was so vibrant and stunning, from the flowers to the golden temples. It's really hard for me to understand how the country has such beauty, and then right at the foot of these temples are a whole bunch of homeless people. We spent the evening having delicious food and soaking in the delicious privilege of eating and hangout outside in comfortable warmth. Amusingly I did look somewhat like a nun in my Korea-appropriate conservative dresses compared to the mostly naked back packers strolling around.
Day 2 in Bangkok we went to the floating market. It was really neat, but more importantly, we got very delicious food. While Vietnamese in origin, pho was available throughout Thailand and was absolutely amazing. We spent about half the day at the market, and it was beautiful, though a little overwhelming with the selling of things. My favourite useless trinket were these fold up hats that could also be used as fans. As the salelady was happy to tell us "two in one!"
We left Bangkok at the end of Day 2 and headed for Chiang Mai. I will have a separate post about transportation because we tried just about every kind in Thailand!
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| In the shadows of the golden temples.. |
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| First Thai mammal I saw! |
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| In one of the temples were a whole bunch of Buddhas from different areas and periods. Very neat to see how his form changed around the world. |
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| This greek buddha was the least like the chubby smiling image we are used to seeing. |
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| Some of the Buddha's were rather feminine. I wonder why. |
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| Seems like a pretty silly good deed to me as the fish needn't be caught in the first place... |
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| Korean boy band BEAST on the side of a Thai Bus! KPOP REPRESENT! |
On to the floating market..
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| Guess why this FREAKED me out? |
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| I ate this. It was about 1.20$. It was. a.ma.zing. |
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