bangkok nights

sooo
bangkok nights are very interesting.. especially when your guest house is located in the red light district.
so, the first night, MY BIRTHDAY, we all wanted to go out to eat together.
sadly, it was too expensive to go where we really wanted, and all 20 whatever of us did not fit in one restaurant, so we went to separate places. i ate at some papaya something place with 5 of my friends. since i turned 21, i got a margarita.
it wasn't really a margarita. for some reason, in thailand, margaritas are just like colored tequila. it was blue, though, so that was pretty perfect.
they got me a piece of cake and sang to me. i blew out the 4 candles.. several times as they turned out to be trick candles..
then we went to.. an irish pub.
just the place to spend your 21st birthday when you're in bangkok.
well, for me, it really was. i mean, look at the handrail on the stairs:



after the bar, we walked around this night market. shannon and i, following jess and zach, walked down this brightly lit road. mind you, i was a bit happy from the alcohol my friends had bought me, though no where near unstable, so the experience that came next.. was very interesting.
as we're walking, this guy keeps coming at me, following us down the road saying, "darling, 75 for you! 75 for you, darling!" shannon and i were very disturbed at this point, so we turned around to go back. then, i suddenly realize that all of the tables are male couples or just a bunch of men, and shannon turns and says, "this is a gay street!" we both crack up and go back to the market.
i think we were better off on the gay street. the market was full of more people hounding us. this time, though, there was no "darling" involved. we got lots of lists shoved in our faces, followed by "ping pong show? banana show?"

thursday night, we went to the market after eating at this amazing restaurant called "bug and bee". it was a good night, though we didn't do too much since friday was going to be a busy day. the market had a lot of the normal market items--jewelry, clothing, and shoes. a lot of the items were very western, though some were clearly from thailand and not straight off of a factory assembly line.

friday night was by far the best night. first, everyone went out to eat at an indian restaurant. originally, we were going to go to little india, but the day was too long, so we went to a place pretty close to where we were staying.
after dinner, we went back to the street with all of the gay bars on it. we sat outside for a while, and around 9:30, we went to see a cabaret show.
here are the best pictures that i got from the show:

bangkok wats

the wats we visited in bangkok included wat arun, wat prakaew, and wat po.

wat arun








wat arun had a lot more pottery worked into the decorations than the other wats.









it was also more of one centralized site versus wat prakaew, which had tons and tons of buildings to visit. this was the shortest wat visit, and it was probably the least enjoyable for me as i was already extremely tired (we went on wednesday, so i hadn't really slept and had already been trekking around all day), and it was broiling. what i did find very interesting was the.. lack of respect? for some of the sculptures. for instance, one sculpture was packed in every nook and cranny with empty water bottles and pop cans. i thought it was a tad bit strange, especially when other statues were sectioned off with signs asking visitors not to touch them.








wat prakaew








wat prakaew was the place to be. it was rather crowded when we arrived. it's a very important wat, so they're strict on dress code. they yelled at a couple girls to button their tops more and pull their skirts a little lower. a lot of people appeared to have rented/borrowed outfits so they could enter.
this temple was more like a village. i've never seen so many intricately decorated buildings.



mini angkor wat














we saw the emerald buddha. he is not actually emerald, though. he is a very large piece of jade. i'm not quite sure why they call him emerald. his outfit is changed several times a year. he was wearing his winter outfit when we saw him.
yes, it was winter when it was over 100 degrees outside.



emerald buddha's guard.


outfits




we had a 45ish minute tour, but i think we could have stayed several hours and still had more to see.


















wat po
wat po is home to the lying down buddha, the second largest buddha in thailand.
he is gigantic.











the bottoms of his feet are covered in designs made out of mother of pearl.







after viewing the buddha, i paid 20 baht to make merit by putting half-baht pieces into many bowls.. we had heard the sound of the money falling in the bowls the whole time we were in the wat, but we didn't know what it was until we completely circled the buddha.

bangkok birthday!

sooo
today we got back from bangkok.
we left tuesday evening, and i woke up in bangkok for my birthday!
i think i will break my entries about bangkok into different activities (the wats, other day excursions, night time!)
the train was.. interesting.
we had 2 people to a bunk area.. a bed below and 1 above. the beds folded out of the seats and pulled down from the ceiling.













i didn't sleep well that night. i think i was nervous about going to bangkok.. plus we were in a cabin car with a bunch of strangers.. it just felt odd.

the guest house we stayed in was much more of a hotel.
the rooms were really just hotel rooms. i think we were all imagining something more like a hostel.
anyway, we got a bit of time to shower, and then we headed out for the day.

i'll give the schedule of events here and then write about them by category in other entries. i also have a more brief overview of the whole trip already written and posted in my other blog.

keep in mind it was at least 100 every day + a ton of humidity. being back in chiang mai is heaven weather-wise. pollution wise, chiang mai feels and smells a lot dirtier in general.

wednesday:
canal tour with barge museum and wat #1
museum of siam
out for my birthday!

thursday:
klong toey slum/duang prateep foundation
bangkok refugee center
free time!

friday:
democracy tour
thammasat university
wat prakaew and wat po
dinner
cabaret show!

saturday:
(free day)
siam paragon, chatuchak (jj) market
train back