Saturday, September 14, 2013

Thailand

At the beginning of August I was able to go to Thailand with some people from work.  The summer legal intern, John was leaving to go back to the States and he wanted to go on a vacation before he left. So Laura, Jon, John, and I decided about a week beforehand that we would go stay in Bangkok for a long weekend.  We left really late Friday night and arrived in Bangkok at 6am on Saturday morning.

The first thing we did was get a taxi and head to our guest house.  We stayed at this wonderful place really close to public transportation called Bangkok Christian guest house.  It was nice and clean and we got a discount because we work for a Christian NGO.  After we left our things there we went to Starbucks which was within walking distance to our guest house.  We sat there and had coffee and enjoyed time just sitting in a peaceful environment drinking awesome coffee.  From there we all went to McDonalds to have actual breakfast.  After that we went on a boat ride to see the Golden Temple and the reclining buddha.  It was really hot and we were getting pretty tired because we hadn't slept all night  so we decided to go get lunch.

Laura had looked up places to get the best burger in Bangkok and we spent the next hour searching for it with no one knowing exactly where we were trying to go.  Unfortunately the place we were going was right in the midst of a 'massage parlor' and 'peep show' neighborhood so we were able to see a lot of that stuff happening.  Other than that aspect we were happily surprised by the awesome burgers we had.  After lunch we went to Starbucks again and then decided to go to JJ market and do some shopping.  It was pouring rain (hello monsoon season) and we were really tired at that point so we didn't spend much time there.  It was a huge market though and we were able to buy some things.  It was really cool because it was an indoor and outdoor market and tons of street food and lively things happening.  It was nice to be outside and to be doing something that seemed much more normal.

After we left there we decided to go take a nap because we were all really tired at that point.  We took two hour naps and then got up and got ready for dinner.  We decided to go get mexican food near our guest house.  The food was delicious and we were able to get cheese dip and margaritas so it was perfection.  After dinner we decided that we wanted to go and walk through the prominent red light area that was by where we were staying.  We did a walk through and then went back to our hotel and called it a night.

We woke up really early Sunday and had some more Starbucks and Au Bon Pain, and then we had a car drive us a place called Hintok River Camp that was about three hours outside the city of Bangkok.  It was so much greenery everywhere and it was on the river and had a pool overlooking the river.  Our 'rooms' were these big tents with outdoor bathrooms and a/c.

We all went swimming and just hung out there during the day and read.  We had an awesome dinner, and then we went down to the dock to watch the stars.  We went to bed early that night and prepared for a boat ride the next morning.

Monday morning we went on a two hour boat ride up to see some waterfalls.  It was really beautiful and a nice time spent on the river.  We got to get out of the boat and go walk through the water.  After that we got on the boat again to ride back to the river camp.

We left the river camp and headed back to Bangkok because we had a flight to catch late Monday night.  I was able to get some bubble tea in Bangkok that was delicious.  I did some shopping while everyone else ate dinner and then we sat around at Starbucks until we had to leave to go to the airport.

The trip was quite a whirlwind but it was really fun and I am glad that I got the chance to spend time with that group of people.  I do plan to write more about visiting the red light area and the impact that had on me.

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