So I arrived in Bangkok late Monday afternoon. I had a great flight because I made two new friends. I was waiting in line at Heathrow airport, and I had WAY too much crap and the guy behind me had a little bag so he offerred to check in with me so I could use his excess baggage allowance. YAY! So I didn't have to pay. But that also ended up with us being seated together. Also sitting with us was Alex, who is the greatest Aussie chick and we ended up having a nice flight talking about how they were going to sell me into prostitution.
Anyhow, the hotel I picked in Bangkok turned out fantastic. And when I ventured out on Tuesday morning, I discovered I'm right across the street from Bangkok's Koreatown! I was a bit confused though, because Korea's later on my itinerary.
Bangkok Ktown.
I took the Skytrain into Siam where...shamefully, I went shopping. I don't know how I'm gonna get all my shit around the world because I keep buying more and more shit. But hey...I am my grandmother's granddaughter. Skytrain's cool because rather than underground, it's above the traffic. We should get these in LA!
Grand Royal Palace. I know I said I'd scream if I went to another royal palace, but this one's different from the European ones so I made an exception.
The place is amazing. There's so much detail and little mirrors and mosiacs and gold-plating and gemstones.
You're not allowed inside with shorts on or your shoulders exposed. So I had to borrow this ugly green sarong and whenever my shirt would slip off my shoulders (since it's designed like that), the guards would yell at me. Apparantly, Buddha doesn't like shoulders. You're also not allowed to point your feet at him. Jesus is SO low-maintenance compared to Buddha and Mohammad, no?
Emerald Buddha.
These guards are like the Buckingham Palace ones that arn't allowed to move or smile. These Thai schoolgirls were saying stuff and posing with him and making him crack up though. It was hilarious. The Thai schoolgirls are required to wear white shirts and black skirts as uniforms, but in the proud tradition of bad schoolgirls across the world, these girls skanked theirs up by wearing short black miniskirts with high heels and fake designer handbags.
I actually got him to crack up in the picture. YAY ME!
After the palace, I walked around and got lost and I ended up at the port.
Which was called "Tha Chang" which I thought was cool, because I'm Tha Chang too! :D There's a beer called Chang, too.
Pad Thai in Thailand. I went a little red pepper crazy since I'm so excited they even have pepper after living in London where spicy food is practically illegal. The Thai food here is good, but nothing beats Pink Pepper! (The Thai place I ordered from when I lived in Hollywood...if you've ever been to my house, you know it well. Elaine nods...)
I went to Wat Pho to see the Reclining Buddha, aka the Lazy Buddha.
My sister wouldn't like him because he has no belly button...
And huge Paris Hilton feet!
At the temples, you pay 20 baht and they give you a bowl with coins and you're supposed to go along the row of bowls and drop one in each one. It makes nice little "ting" noises. I kept some of the coins for my foreign coin collection. I don't know if that means Buddha will curse me or something...
After Wat Pho, I went outside to get a tuk-tuk to go to Khao San, but the driver convinced me I had more to see and he said he'd take me to all of them for just 100 baht (about $3). I was suspicious but thought why the hell not. I love tuk-tuks. I think they're fantastic. Riding in air-conditioned taxis makes you feel isolated from the city, whereas in tuk-tuks you breath in all the crap air and have all the noise and stuff. Also, tuk-tuks are motorized, so I don't feel like a terrible person like when I'm in rickshaws in China where the poor Chinese boy is peddling a bicycle. It makes me feel like such a lazy bastard, whereas tuk-tuks don't require the physical labor so I don't have to feel bad for the driver.
So tuk-tuk driver guy took me to Big Buddha...
And to Happy Buddha (?)...
And to Lucky Buddha. Which is where I found out why it was so cheap. There's a guy who waits at Lucky Buddha and once you go there, he tells you this whole story about how he's in Bangkok because he just got married and he's buying his wife a ring because some gemstore has a sale that's ending today...blahblahblah. Then he convinces you that you should go there, too. I fell for it, but on the way, I read about gemstore scams in my TimeOut guide and realized that's what's going on. So I went inside, pretended to browse, and then came back out. The tuk-tuk driver asked me if I'd do it again at another gemstore because if he takes me there and I pretend to shop for at least 10 minutes, he gets a voucher for free gas. I figured, why the hell not since at least he was honest about it. So I went there and walked around for 10 minutes pretending to be interested in various objects until at the end, I say "I'll think about it!" and leave. My tuk-tuk dude got his free gas. YAY! He ended up driving me around for like 2 hours...which was fun because I saw most of the old part of the city and he was a good guide.
So then I went to Khao San, which is a shopping street. I went because I knew there was a Starbucks there and I wanted to get my Bangkok city mug. (I collect them.) There was a bar called Sunset Street, which I figured is a nod to Sunset Blvd back at home, so I sat down to have a beer and ended up drinking all night with some Dutch people. Dutch people are generally awesome. I've never met a mean Dutch person or one who doesn't speak at least some English.
My Dutch boys.
Me and Jerry.
So that was Bangkok! I'm catching up...
I'm an idiot and I sat outside on my balcony while writing this and didn't drink any beer tonight so I've just gotten like 10 mosquito bites. DRINK BEER! Beer keeps away the mosquitos because they don't like alcohol. Realize what a sacrifice I've made for ya'll?
1 comment:
i left u a comment last time, but i guess it didnt work. u look like youre havin so much fun! im glad... hey did u get my email?? cant wait til u get back... we missed u at michelles bday. and omg, julie's preggers!!! <3 u
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