"Bye-Bye Bangkok"

Today we are flying from Bangkok to the northern area of Chiang Mai. We had a lot of fun being tourists in Bangkok, but I think it's safe to say that we are all ready to move on. We landed on May 30th in the afternoon, and thankfully all of our baggage did as well! After two days of flying we were eager for a shower and a bed. We found a licensed taxi stand to take us to our hostel in the urban/touristy area of Bangkok. After about an hour of crazy driving (on the opposite side of the road) we arrived at our hostel. We were very happy with the accommodations, complete with bunkbeds and hot showers. The first afternoon in Bangkok was spent exploring close to our hostel and going to bed around 8pm thai time. Party poopers for sure! 

Yesterday on the 31st, we took advantage of our day to be tourists. We started out by exploring the busy Khao San road street market - complete with every tourist trap out there. We spent a couple of hours shopping and haggling our way through the booths, and we each came away with some of the signature Thai pants (pretty much like flowy hammer pants.. Aka the best in the sweaty muggy weather). Think about how muggy Toronto is on a hot summer day, and that's Bangkok at 9am. We planned to visit the major temples in the area, so we were all wearing our long dresses. On our way to the Grand Palace we were approached by some of the typical scammers telling us the palace was closed and to go to their temple instead.. We were aware of this scam ahead of time and knew to ignore them. We approached a stoplight where we were met by a Thai man who started chatting with us about where we were from and how we were liking his country so far. This man took time to recommend us to a unique ceremony happening in the city for that day only, where the monks of Wat Kun Chan were being initiated and shaved their heads. He even drew us a map and told us where to go to avoid paying "tourist" prices and instead paying Thai prices. The man was genuinely kind and didn't appear to be scamming us, but we decided to take it with a grain of salt and continue on our way to the palace. At another crosswalk not even five minutes later we met a man and his wife who said the very same things about the ceremony. They praised the map the first man drew, and even added to it, including phrases that would help us to get Thai prices for things instead of tourist prices. They flagged us a Tuktuk (which you can google and read all about the scams/delights of those) and got us a very good rate to the Thai Station longboat pier where we could start the 1 hour boat tour around Bangkok and see this famed ceremony. This was our first moment of feeling unsure, but we didn't fly all the way over here to be afraid to be spontaneous! The tuktuk ride was a fun experience, and a fast and crazy way to get around. For 900 bht (thai price, vs 3000 tourist price) we hopped aboard the boat. Long story short, we did not see this ceremony, but we DID see many authentic Thai homes, more of bangkok, and a KOMODO DRAGON. We were disappointed we missed the monks, but we are still confident that the locals meant well and that maybe our timing was bad. 

Komodo Dragon

Tuk-tuk survivors

The boat tour ended back at the Grand Palace anyway, so all was well. Turns out a scarf covering your shoulders is not enough at the grand palace, hence the sweet bowling shirts in the picture below. Unfortunately we had our wires crossed and did not make it to the palace in enough time to enter before it closed, so we saved the entry fee and just walked around the outer yard for a bit. 

Lauren, Steph, Jaclyn, Steph outside of Grand Palace

Next on the list (now ~4:30) we headed back down the street to Wat Pho - the Reclining Buddha temple. This was a great experience, and we really enjoyed wandering around. 

All in all we are pretty happy with our experience in bangkok. Walking everywhere allowed us to experience some of the less touristy areas of bangkok, and we are proud that we took a few chances in order to have a more realistic experience. Bangkok was very hot and cluttered, and we are looking forward to the more rural areas of Chiang Mai. We hope our good luck continues in our travels, and will write again soon!

Steph Pierre