Friday, February 11, 2011

Bangkok 2.0


After all night upright in 2nd class before, we had learned our lesson and reserved our first class sleeper cabin well in advance. This made the journey back far more pleasant, though the train unfortunately still arrrived far too early (6am). Since our flight didn't leave til 2am that night, we had one more day in Bangkok.

We started the day by leaving our backpacks at the train station and caught a tuk-tuk to Wat Po, home of the Reclining Buddha. What is the Reclining Buddha you ask? This ...


It's a 120 ft long statue of Buddha laying on his side. It was of course surrounded by an impressive temple complex and crazy statues.


From there we tried to catch a tuk-tuk back to the train station but ended up on a nearly free tour of that part of Bangkok. Of course since nothing in life is free, our ride was part tour, part sales trip. We were taken to two suit-makers and one jewelry/everything store in the course of our "tour". They actually had some good deals which we nevertheless politely but firmly refused. We did choose to each get a tshirt at the last store as a momento of Bangkok (mine is bright pink and yes I can pull it off). We probably would have objected to this roundabout drive except that we had few plans for the day and it was an entertaining experience.

Our tuk-tuk tour

From there we headed to a Texas BBQ restaurant which had food so authentic I would have sworn we were in Texas if I hadn't known better. I was in heaven! We spent the rest of the day exploring, catching a movie and eating whenever possible until it was time to head back. Overall it was a great trip and a very different experience than anything i've had in the US or Europe. I can't wait to see where my travels will take me next!

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