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| At the top of the Temple of Dawn overlooking the Chao Phraya River and Bangkok |
Colin and I had planned a long honeymoon in Thailand, but after our wedding we ended up canceling the trip due to political unrest in Bangkok... our airlines had issued refunds so we decided not to stress it and do wine country and Hawaii instead. Not so bad for a last minute honeymoon, we know. And then we got orders to move to Germany and decided we'd be doing a ton of travel in a more prolonged honeymoon... so again, no complaining!!
But Colin and I definitely have a travel bug at this point... we get antsy thinking about all the stuff out there to explore, and because Thailand was at the top of the list 2 years ago, and winters in Germany are not my favorite, we took the plunge and decided to go in January.
We are so glad we did! It was everything we hoped - gorgeous, exotic and adventurous! We did a quick tour of Bangkok and went north to the jungles in Chiang Mai. From there we hopped to the island of Koh Samui on Thailand's east coast for some beach time. It wasn't all we had planned to do for our honeymoon (Phi Phi Don and Phuket - we hope to see you someday!!), but it was incredible.
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| Thai people greet you with this sort of praying hands pose and bow, followed by "Sawadee Kaaaaah". We really got the hang of it by the time we left and loved it! |
The things about Bangkok that frightened me were the mixed reviews we've received from friends who have visited it, and the fact that we had to tour it after a very long day and sleepless night of traveling. So we did the easy thing - hire one of the many extremely cheap tour guides to take us around the city for a day! Some quick high and low points of our 24 hours in BKK:
High Points:
1. Tour guide was great - from the get go she had us riding on "public transportation" - basically the covered back of a pick up truck, used like a small bus, and took us to all the major sites in the pics below -The Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), Wat Po (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) and Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn).
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| Hop on the Bus folks! |
2. Thai people are so nice! They bow so frequently and smile and are so kind and helpful. We had one stranger help us navigate their skytrain system and keep an eye on us to make sure we exited at the right time. So sweet.
3. We love riding in Tuk-tuks - the 3 wheeled mini open air cabs that take you all over.
4. The night market is very entertaining and an easy place to bargain... we weren't serious about buying so we got to see just how easily the vendors drop in price when you simply walk away to look at the next thing.
5. We're giants! Colin and I were so tall compared to the Thai people that we'd hit our heads on the handles hanging down from the top of the subway.
Low Points.
[As a disclaimer, this is not meant to be negative, but in our traveling we have found that later the "low points" in travel tend to be the moments we look back on and laugh hardest at. In this case it was no exception...]
1. Colin got a case of Montezuma's Revenge. And had to ride public transportation for 1.5 hours while trying not to lose his marbles on the way to the airport. We aren't sure how I didn't get it, but we think it may have something to do with the local market our tour guide took us to for lunch? When we asked for bottled water, they pulled it out of a fridge where we saw how they stored raw meat... open, unwrapped and next to the bottled water. hm.. Fortunately it was a 24 hour bug and I found a pharmacy in the airport that had just about any medication you could possibly need. And they spoke English! Disaster not exactly averted, but managed. We do laugh about this now...
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| Sampling of Thai beer. I don't think this helped Montezuma's Revenge. |
We only had one low point!
And now photos of the many temples we toured in Bangkok:
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| Grand Palace / Wat Phraw Kaew - this was spectacular! Bangkok's most sacred temple was built in 1785 by King Rama I and houses a famed Emerald Buddha made of jade, sculpted in the 14th or 15th Century. |
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| Our tour guide told us that these guys (yakshas) were "very powerful", and guarded the Emerald Buddha from evil spirits. |
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| Temple etiquette requires shoulders and knees covered, even when walking around the outside. |
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| The tile work and mosaics at the Grand Palace were exquisite! With influences from China and India, it was amazing to see! |
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| I think these warrior guys also were "powerful". Our tour guide insisted we take this pic. |
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| Standing in front of Bangkok's "Buckingham Palace" - apparently modeled after the one in London. |
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| We got used to seeing a LOT of Buddhas, including this famous and enormous Reclined Buddha, which is 150 feet long and covered in gold. |
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| More Buddha |
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| Outside Wat Po and the Massage School. |
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| We took a boat on the Chao Phraya to get to the various sites - much faster than trying to get through the congested streets of Bangkok! |
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| View of the Temple of Dawn, our favorite |
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| Outside the Temple of Dawn |
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| We climbed the ridiculously steep steps to the amazing view above |
Chiang Mai up next!
