Bangkok, Thailand (and a little China too)

3/23-26

Flew from Siem Reap to Bangkok and guess who we met up with at the airport?

My friend Logan, who I started with at Epic and is now doing an around-the-world trip!

He was definitely more tan and grizzled than when I last saw him.

We dropped our stuff off at Bed Station hostel and went to explore the city.

Bangkok is very much a big, sprawling city and was way more developed than Cambodia. We took a long walk through the city and ended up at Golden Mountain temple for sunset. Despite the cloudy (smoggy?) conditions, it was quite the view.

We made our way to Khao San Road, the epicenter of Bangkok nightlife, grabbed some big Chang beers on a balcony, and people-watched the lively stretch of bars, restaurants, and street vendors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was the beginning of the night, and after some pad thai from some street vendors and haggling with others, we eventually wandered over to Soi Cowboy, a street lined with go-go dancer bars.

An amusing game we played was “spot the lady boys.” The dancers and waitresses were all pretty touchy and unyielding, but we had fun cracking jokes with them in English and broken Thai.

The next morning, as a result of our drink choices the night before, we were all hit with a “Chang-over”. But we solved that with some city touring. We walked a lot, took a bus, and chilled out.

Along the way, we passed the Victory Monument and hung out for a while at Lumphini Park, which was sort of like a Central Park except with giant monitor lizards roaming around the grass.

At night, Jeff and I joined some hostel friends at an EDM concert which was interesting.

After saying goodbye to Logan, the next day, we did some more city exploring. This time, we took a long boat down the river, and visited some temples. I really enjoyed all the different modes of transportation we took during the trip.

Wat Benchamabophit had really nice marble structures.

Wat Pho was quite big and included the giant reclining buddha and many beautiful spires.

We strolled down the river side and took in sunset at Sanam Luang Park, where there were kite battles! I was fascinated by the teams of kite flyers and runners.

For dinner, we chowed down on a giant barbequed fish!

We spent our last night getting some drinks way up high at Cloud47 sky bar and then playing a random and funny game of truth or dare with some other hostelmates. Jeff got really lucky in the game.

The next morning was quick. We did a little souvenir shopping and shared lunch before breaking off on separate flights. I’m really glad I got to travel around to all these places with Jeff. Never a dull moment. Many funny ones instead :)

Before heading back to the States, I stopped over in Guangzhou for a day and a half to visit family! All we did was eat, but it was great to see cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

I got to indulge in wonton noodles, dim sum, lunch, dinner, and then capped it off with a stroll through Lychee Bay Park. It was a really nice end to an awesome trip.