Bangkok, Thailand (Post #73)
Hey Holiday People,
Michele here…Today is December 21 and guess what? I am 40 years old today! Yep, hard to believe considering I usually act 26, but it’s true. For my birthday I asked Mike for a cup of black filtered coffee (not instant). The United States is a coffee drinking nation but much of the rest of the world drinks tea and that’s what I’ve been drinking for the last couple of months. So, while I was in the shower this morning, Mike went out and got me a cup of black coffee. Awww…isn’t he sweet?! He’s the best!
Since the last blog (which admitedly was a while ago)….
We were in Bangkok, Thailand for 4 days and are now in 430 miles north of Bangkok in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
I don’t know what happened in Bangkok (perhaps we hit “the wall”) but we did very little sight seeing. For the most part we slept, figured out what we are doing the next 3 months, made travel arrangements, and ran errands. It all started on Saturday, December 17th when we arrived in Bangkok at 6:30am. Yes, we took another one of those sleepless overnight flights. Plus, we had to move our watches ahead by 2.5 hours so we lost those hours too. Now, we are 12 hours ahead of East coast time and 15 hours ahead of West coast time. When we checked into our very cool hostel (Suk 11) we immediately went to sleep. We had both been sick with sinus problems and it appeared I also had some type of eye infection in both eyes (glassy, red, and lots of gunk coming out at the corners – I’m sure you needed to know that much detail!) Anyway, we eventually got up but I just stayed in bed until the next morning on Sunday, December 18th. At least Mike left the room to get something to eat.
On Sunday, we did manage to take the sky tram (exactly like the Washington DC metro except elevated) to the Nam Chao Phraya river and catch an express boat (public transportation boat) up to Chinatown. We wandered around there and checked out some of the markets. Bangkok is very much like New York City or Washington, DC. There are a lot of neon lights, department stores, and Westerners (people from North America and Europe). Mike and I are a minority couple. We are two Caucasians, which is a rare sight. Another rare sight is a couple in which both people are from Thailand. Most couples we see are made up of a Caucasion man and a Thai woman (or girl) – and there are a lot of these couples. There appears to be many Thai women who are looking for uh…let’s just call them…”dates” (at least in the area where we are staying, which is the business district – Marriott Hotel, etc.) There are also men passing out flyers (only to Mike) with naked women on them advertising massages (and I think you know the type I mean). I don’t know why there is a need to advertise this since every other store is a massage parlor. About half are the regular kind and the other half are the “naughty” kind. There are also several clinics in the area (one next door to our hostel) that test for STDs and HIV.
Over the course of the next several days, Mike and I figured out a plan for traveling around northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and then down to southern Thailand. (Yea, I know it would have been good to have figured this out before we got here but we have really been on the go the past month.) It took many hours of research (e.g., reading guidebooks and looking on the Internet) to figure out which cities we wanted to go to and how we would travel between them. Meanwhile, we did figure out that we needed to obtain a visa for Laos and Vietnam before we got to the borders. We went through a travel agent and paid a bit extra for expedited visas for both of these countries (note that we can get the Cambodia visa at the border). We also made arrangements to fly to Chiang Mai (which is where we are now) . In addition to doing these things, we were still feeling somewhat sick and slept more than usual. We also did mundane but necessary chores such as buy vitamins, toothpaste, etc., hand wash clothes (a common errand when traveling), buy and sell used books, and send stuff back to the U.S. Oh, and we had to move because our hostel was fully booked for weeks and we ended up extending our stay in Bangkok to get the visas.
We did manage to get out yesterday and spent some time wandering around the grounds of Wat Po (Temple of the Reclining Buddha). This is Bangkok’s largest wat (temple) and it contains a 150-foot gold sculpture of Buddha reclining. The head of Budda (which is shown in a photo below) is approximately 10-12 feet. After we visited Wat Po we went to an interesting place for dinner called Cabbages & Condoms. There was a lovely Christmas tree made out of condoms in the area where you are greeted by the restaurant staff. The proceeds from the meals go to the country’s family planning program and instead of dinner mints at the end of our meal, we got…yes, you guessed it – condoms!
A few photos:
Me (Michele) at Cheap Charlie’s (where the Thai beer is $1) . This is an outdoor bar with a lot of strange things and lights surrounding the seating area.
Grounds of Wat Po:
Head of Reclining gold Buddha:
As I mentioned, we are in Chiang Mai now and will be here for the next 3 nights. I’ll blog about Chiang Mai when there is more to report.
Bye!
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Tags: Category #20: Thailand
Michele Harmon
Michelle, I hope you had a great birthday. Take care in southern Thailand. It can be a dangerous place, according to my co-worker who is from Thailand. I have been enjoying your adventures and envy the two of you. I can’t wait untill you write your book and publish all the pictures. What a coffee table book that would be. Stay safe and keep posting.
Yes, happy birthday!
Happy Birthday Michele! We are going to have to drink a lot of red wine to celebrate when you return this spring/summer!
Keep on blogging!
Darn Michelle! 🙂 You didn’t even let us wish you a happy 40th birthday first! 🙂 I agree with Jeff. This will make a great coffee table book. Great idea Jeff. ;-)) Sounds like they need many Starbucks over there. Hmmm – maybe that could be my new career. Love the stories you two. Great pictures too. When does this whirlwind adventure wind down?
happy 40th, Michelle! what an amazing way to spend it! enjoy thailand…can’t wait to hear more!!
Hey Mike and Michelle, happy b’day mate, I hope you are enjoying your travels. Great pics and keep it up, we love reading what you crazy cats are up to!
take care!
Happy Birthday, Michele!
-Smith