This weekend only a few of us wanted to leave Bangkok, and we wanted to go to the beach. The problem here was that the rest of the group wanted to go to the exact same beach the next weekend. So, this weekend I stayed in Bangkok. Though it was not the most ideal place to be all weekend (it was SO hot and the beach would have been quite enjoyable!), I did find some fun things to do around Bangkok.
Saturday morning myself and 5 other girls all hopped into a taxi (yes… 6 girls in one taxi, a little corolla!), and headed to the Sky Train which brought us to Bangkok’s Chatuchak Weekend Market. And WOW! I thought the markets in some of the cities I have gone to are huge… this market is GIGANTIC! It is actually about 35 acres in size.. no joke! And, like most things in Bangkok, the system of organization was… different. I got lost about 3 minutes in. By myself. So, I decided to wonder aimlessly for a couple hours until I bumped into the other girls, which eventually did happen (thank goodness!). I found a couple cool gifts there (and already told my mom about them, of course!), and also bought myself some pretty neat stuff as well. After 2 hours in the market, us 6 girls decided to head back to the BTS (Bangkok Transit System… the Sky Train) and explore another part of Bangkok. So, with merchandise in hand, we headed to some temples and the Grand Palace. Sadly, we started out with some temples, and by the time we got out of there, the grand Palace was closed for the day. The temples were very neat though. There were hundred of Buddha Statues of all shapes and sizes. Though my religious beliefs do not align with the Buddhist beliefs, it was very interesting to get a glimpse more of the Thai culture, which is helping me understand why things work the way they do here in Thailand.
After another squishy cab ride back to the apartments, we took a dip in the pool to cool ourselves off from a day walking around in the Bangkok 45 degree heat.
That evening I went with 4 other girls to see the movie “Dark Shadows”. It was great! And Thai movie theatres are just different enough from the Canadian theatres that it feels like a cultural experience as well. For one, when you by your tickets, you pick what seat you want to sit in. The best seats in the theatre are about a dollar more than the other seats. It is slightly convenient to do it this way, since we all know that rush seating can get slightly physical. Another interesting difference is the popcorn selection. Yes, they have the salty popcorn with butter (or maybe it is fish oil…), but they also have a sweet option (kind of like caramel corn), and a BBQ chilli or something like that (I am guessing it is spicy!). So, just like in Canada, you get your popcorn (that only cost $3-4, drink included), and go into the theatre for the previews. However, in the middle of the previews, everyone in the theatre stands for the national anthem and a video of the king. It is very interesting to see how this culture differs from the Canadian culture, even at the movie theatre.
Sunday myself and 3 other girls went on a day trip to Ayutthaya, which contains ancient ruins. It was a perfect unplanned day. We started off with a Taxi to the BTS, BTS to downtown, a city bus to the main bus terminal, and the main bus terminal to Ayutthaya. And absolutely everything worked out about as perfect as possible with time wise! We never waited longer than 3 minutes for any form of transportation to keep us moving to the next point. Once we arrived in Ayutthaya, we hired a tuk tuk to take us around for 4 hours, bringing us on our own personalized tour (and it only cost 250 baht each which is about $10 CAN). It was amazing! The ruins were so neat, and the tuk tuk was really fun (though it is another thing that reminds me I am too tall for Thailand)!
There are so many pictures from that day! I don’t even know where to begin. So, I will post one of the few pictures that has me in it, and some more will come some other time if I feel like waiting for pictures to upload for a couple hours!
Leanne's Adventures 