Thailand ~ Bangkok!

Sketchy motel we were taken to in the middle of the night

It was right out of a scary movie

Lovely accomodations...from 1970?

Looked a bit better in the daylight

Try doing those stairs with your packs on your back in the dark- had we fallen in, scary

It was actually pretty unique and for about $2 each, well worth it

A house along the riverbank on our way to the floating market

Some of the goods at the market

They even have food boats!! Yummyyy~ Coconut pancakes!!

Devine!

Super neat! They even have beer boats...

A temple off the river of the market

Cool old lamps at the scary motel

Loading down the tuktuk with our stuff...wow

$1 street Pad Thai - the stuff was covered with flies, BUT it was DELICIOUS!!

Mmmmm street bugs

Cheap cheap!

On our way to the ping-pong show~

Super excited!

Hitting it three times for good luck

Biggest Buddha

A ride on the river

Huge sitting Buddha

At the top of the STEEP stairs...

SOOO STEEP!

Legs of laying down Buddha

He was huge!

Thai monk

A lovely lunch after a busy day touring

~HAPPY NEW YEARS~

Yes~she really bought the hat!

Crowded streets

~Chingus~

Late night snacks - Hoppers and Scorpion

Trying to decide if the scorpion was good - crunchy and tasted a little like burnt toast

**READ KHO PHI PHI POST FIRST- this is a continuation from there**

After arriving in Bangkok (delayed flight from Phuket, worked out for the best though because Rachal and Mer's flight was later than ours...) we hustled to the bus station to get a bus out to where the floating markets were....WOW~ we ran around this huge bus station having NO clue where to go, being told to go this way and that...the last bus was set to leave 5 mins before we actually found our bus. It was a bit of a panicked situation. Once on the bus though, we were good to go! There was an insanely scary movie playing for us all to watch- comforting! Stop after stop, we weren't getting off....until finally, we were the last people on the bus. Really?! The lady on the bus (bus chauffer?) Helped us with the information we needed and she called and arranged for us to sleep somewhere, we didn't know where until we were dropped off. In the middle of no where (or so it seemed at nearly midnight). We walked up to this place that was RIGHT out of a horror movie. I was super nervous, to put it lightly. I thought for sure my life was over (thank you Hollywood for ingraining this sort of fear into our minds). It was these western themed cottage-like houses all propped up over water. The wooden boards were less than safe and with a huge pack on your back, almost no light to see, it made for an interesting trek to our cottage. Once inside, their toilet facilities consisted of a squatter (awesome!). The shower was ice cold and the pillow (if you could even call it that?) was a rock hard cushion from a couch. I wasn't very excited to sleep- nervousness. I envisioned, if I made it though the night, a huge tarantula or some other bug crawling in bed with me during the night- never happened and I'm still here to tell the story...In the morning I woke up bright and early- we wanted to hit the floating market and was told it gets busy later in the day. I went to shower and turned my head the wrong way- CRUNCH. Literally, a popping/crunching sound came from my neck. I was in immense pain and for the next day was unable to turn to the right. Wow...not impressed. Was it the weight of carrying a pack? The rough oil massage? The rock hard pillow from the night's sleep? Who knows...it just sucked.

The floating market was cool! We were toured around, didn't buy anything except a breakfast beer and coconut pancakes. We stopped at a temple and looked around. Fed some HUGE fish...headed back and got on the bus to go back to Bangkok. It was amazing to see the ways that people there lived. They had these houses on up high on posts and would, presumably, bath in the dirty brown water of the river. We actually saw a man bathing at one point on a little dock infront of his house.

The bus ride back was relaxing- except for my neck. Before boarding the bus we grabbed some street Pad Thai for $1. Sure all the ingredients were sitting out, being landed on by flies (we opted NOT to have any meat or shrimp in it), but man oh man..DELICIOUS!~

Got to Bangkok and then had to find a place to stay....at that point we were over trying to find cheap accomodations. We stayed at a rather luxurious hotel for $15 a night. It had a pool and everything. It was 5 mins walking distance from Koh San road. Great! We dropped off our stuff and suited up to lay in the sun. I know I said it before but my NECK! I was in lots of pain. We ended up going to a pharmacy (after opting out of a doc. visit). The pharmasist was great! She offered me moreee than enough meds from muscle relaxants, inflamation medication and pain killers. Stayed away from the pain killers...but took the others and it must have been some sort of a miracle worker because when I woke up the next day it felt soo much better!

One of the nights we hit up a ping pong show- for those of you who do not know what this is...google it. I don't know who reads this andddd...it's a bit explict to talk about. Interesting to say the least. I wasn't aware things like what I saw were possible...haha...and that's all I'll say about that.

New Years Eve day was spent touring around. We hit up many different Buddhas~ Sitting Buddha, Good Luck Buddha, Laying Buddha, Big Buddha- it was all nice to see. However, we were scammed hardcore by the tuktuk driver. He told us initially the price to be toured around for the day. No big deal. Well in Bangkok the tuktuk drivers have deals with shops that if they take tourists to their shop, they'll give the tuk tuk driver a gas coupon. Well in between our tours we had to make all these stops and HAD to stay in the store atleast 15 mins or they wouldn't get their gas coupon...well the tuktuk driver kept getting angry at us because we didn't want to bother going in for 15 mins, or the people inside were rude, etc. It was a mess. It was annoying and we didn't want to be part of it! Finally he dropped us off at a place, demanded we give him money and he was going to take off...well forget that. We told him to beat it. From there we tried to see the National Palace- it was super crowded and I wasn't allowed in (because I was wearing tights and a scarf- they are really picky about clothing at places deemed sacred but I thought I was ok because I was ensuring I was covering the spots they don't show- chest, shoulders, knees)....ah well. From there we went on a boat tour for a little bit. Saw more sights. Climbed, what would be the STEEPEST stairs ever- VERY frightening!! We were so tired so headed back for a snooze before a little party action for New Years. We hit the streets New Years Eve night. Got our buckets of booze and wandered. The streets were PACKED. We ended up in a little bar for the actual countdown. It was so weird being so far from home- I had never been somewhere HOT for New Years...we decided on the walk back to the hotel that it would be a good idea to try some street bugs. I chose the scorpion- we shared it. It actually wasn't bad tasting just VERY crunchy!! It tasted like burnt toast. All I needed was some cheese whiz! The other girls ate grasshopper and seeing as I still have a fear of them, dead or alive, it wasn't coming near my mouth. The girls headed to bed, but not being ready to do so just yet I ventured out on my own. I met up with some people we had met earlier. Had some drinks with them. Met a handsome, intelligent man from Norway~ we hung out until the sun rose which was bittersweet because I had to be up a couple hours after to SHOPPPPP allllllll dayyyyy!! We went to one of the biggest, if not biggest market in the world! It was massive! There was so much to see, it was overwhelming. Going on such little sleep did not make it easy for me. I shopped til I dropped, literally. This would be our last day in Bangkok. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel, gathered our things and waited for our flight.

It was a trip I'll certainly never forget~ not to mention I have the tattoo to remind me. I loved it and want to go back, but who wouldn't love sitting on the beach NOT working...well I guess I'd be working in a way...working on my tan!~