First off I would like to say thank you to all my followers. Hope all is well in the states and miss you all soo much!!!
Sept. 28th: The night before we ended up meeting Scott, Eden's friend, at the airport and he took us to a backpackers hostel. That night we walked around the area and ate pad Thai and mango shakes. Everything is sooo insanely cheap here I love it. You can get pad Thai on the street for $2.00. We also got caught in a crazy rain storm but we needed to remember its their rainy season right now.
Today we had breakfast at the hostel and walked around Bangkok. We went to the Grand Palace where there were a number of shiny golden pagodas, a mural, a beautiful garden, a large wooden teak mansion and the emerald Buddha. We then walked through the streets from tourist attraction to tourist attraction and made pit stops to buy some fruit. I had lychees and fried banana it was delicious and the fruit is soo cheap here! We walked and had lunch on a river front restaurant and I had fried rice with vegetables and a watermelon shake. Our food cost us less than $6.00. We then headed to see the largest reclining Buddha.
When we got to the reclining Buddha you had to take your shoes off. The reclining Buddha was massive and painted in gold. This site is known to house the largest reclining Buddha in all of Thailand. When it was time to exit I grabbed my shoes and sat down and started reading all the signs to watch out for your personal belongings. I then noticed the guards saying something about me but I had no idea what they were saying. We then headed on to the riverboat and that's when I realized my camera was missing.
We jumped off the riverboat and headed back to the reclining Buddha. I looked at the guard and I asked him if he had seen my camera. I said I would even offer to pay for it just to get it back. He made me write my contact information and made a sad puppy face and said something in Thai. I was annoyed and upset but there is nothing I could do. He told me to come back at 7 so I assumed he had stolen it and he wanted to wait till 7 to receive my payment for my camera. We decided to get on the riverboat and see the Wat Arun (Temple named after the Indian God of Dawn). We climbed the building and the stairs here are extremely steep. Eden has a fear of heights so it took her some time to get down. We got back on the riverboat and headed to a bar not far from the reclining Buddha. The bar was called The Deck and we walked up a flight of stairs to get to the top and ordered our drinks. All of a sudden the crazy rainstorm was coming our way. It was crazy on one side of the sky it was beautiful and sunny and to the left of us the sky looked dismal and it was headed our way. We saw crazy lightening and the sound of the thunder was unreal. We then looked at the time and it was close to 7. We walked back to the reclining Buddha and I went up to the guard that gave me the puppy face and said "I have money now can I have my camera back please" he said he didn't have it and blamed it on a tourist. I said fine and I walked out cried for 5 min and realized that its just a camera I still had my health, my credit cards and my passport. It was just sad because it was a going away present from my co workers and all my memories of Japan and China were gone. Eden was impressed that I was not freaking out and crying. I kept my cool and just accepted it.
Side note: We came to the conclusion that my camera was stolen while I was putting my shoes back on and the guard was trying to find it for me so he could make some money off of me but my camera was probably already sold or sent to the thieves market which is why he told me to return at 7pm to see if he could find it. Thanks a lot Bangkok!
That night we ended up meeting Aaron, a friend of mine named Darren put me in touch with him, for dinner. Aaron currently works and lives in Bangkok and will be here for 3 years. We had dinner at an Australian bar and I ordered Thai noodles.
Side note: Do not order Thai food at places that are not Thai. My noodles were horrible!
We then asked Aaron to take us to the red light district just to experience it. So the red light district is a bit sketchy its full of prostitutes and "lady boys" and it was quite amusing to watch old overweight white men walk around with their tiny beautiful Thai ladies. I would like to keep this blog rated pg 13 so I cannot go into too much of what I saw. You will just have to experience the red light district in Bangkok on your own my friends.
We then said goodbye to Aaron and made plans with him to meet up for the full moon party, got into a tuk tuk and headed to the hostel to sleep.
Sept. 29th: In the morning we booked a train, hotel and trekking tour for 3 days and 2 nights in Chian Mai in northern Thailand. A little shout out to Becky for sending us her itinerary thanks so much for sharing that with us! We used this day to run errands and I ended up sending my sleeping bag and hiking boots back to the states because my backpack was getting the best of me and I needed to make it lighter. I wanted to go to China town or the thieves market to see if I could find my camera but the woman at the desk looked at me and said that Bangkok is huge and I will never see my camera again.
We then headed to the train station and dropped our bags off so we could go to the MBK which is a huge mall in Bangkok. Our train was not leaving until 7:30pm so we had plenty of time to roam around and find me a new camera. Scott wanted to get his visa for another country so we separated and Eden and I headed to MBK.
When we got to MBK we walked around and only saw 2 camera stores. The cameras were insanely expensive and I was shocked that these were the only stores that had cameras. I almost made a deal with a guy but I decided not to purchase something at the first store and see if I could find another place. He told me he was the only one in the mall... yah ok buddy. We then got on the escalator up to the 4th floor and the floor was packed with camera and cell phone shops. I haggled my way and bought the same camera with a memory card and case for $200. When I got it I took a picture of the woman who sold it to me hoping that would bring me good luck. So cheers to new memories! We then headed up to the 7th floor where the food court was. Here they give you a card to enter the food court and the place is filled with different stands with different types of food. Eden and I chose this Greek place and got falafel and lamb wraps and they take your card and swipe it for you. You then get to the cashier and they tell you how much you owe. We looked at the time and it was 6:45 time to head back to the train station.
We hopped in a cab and the traffic was crazy. our cab driver did not speak English and he was super sketchy. It was taking us forever to figure out a good route to get to the train station. Eden and I were getting really frustrated with him so we threw money at him and jumped out. We then ran and I get to a tuk tuk and ask him how much he wanted to get us to the train station he said 150 baht and I projected 60 baht and he said 80 baht and I projected fine! We hopped on to the tuk tuk and told him to step on it to get to the train station. It was now 7:10 and we were getting nervous, especially after our China train experience you would think we would have better time management by now. Nope! We then hopped off the tuk tuk and ran into the train station. We got the look of death from Scott but we made it in time. We grabbed our bags and headed to the platform. Guess what though...... our train was 45min. late.
When we got on the train we were a little nervous. We were on a sleeper train but this time I felt more safe since we were traveling with Scott. I had the bottom bed and Scott and Eden had the upper level beds. I slept with all of my things around me but did not really get much sleep since I was nervous about being robbed.
Woke up the next morning and the train pulled into Chiang Mai. Here we will ride elephants and go on a 3 day trek.
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