I traveled with my dramatic writing classmate, Garrett. I had gone to KL with him last semester, and he proved to be a formidable travel companion. We left early Friday morning, and upon arrival, couldn't help but notice the sketchy man who seemed to be smuggling something hidden in a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal (the old school kind; like this thing was old and dirty, and was not a modern Mickey Mouse!) through customs. Actually, somehow he got to go through the Diplomats lane, which makes it even sketchier!
Once we got in the cab, we realized we weren't in Kansas, err, Singapore anymore. Driving down the highway at 130km/hr in a cab with no seat belts reminded me how much I love the thrill of danger.
We stayed at The Metropolitan Hotel, recommended by Tai. It was a nice hotel for a decent price. After checking in and getting some grub, we went off in search of a tailor, for Garrett. Garrett wanted to get a couple of suits made while he was in Thailand. We went to a shopping mall that the hotel recommended (admittedly, more posh than we were going for), and it looked like another scene out of Singapore. At the tailor, I had the acting role of the year, playing the part of a money-conscious up-tight significant other, to help Garrett get his price lowered. As we left the store, Garrett said to me, "we have to make one more stop to pick up your Academy Award."
After the tailor, we headed to the Grand Palace. We toured the grounds for a bit: there's impressive artwork, and temples. See photos below:
That night, we went to an amazing Thai, family-style restaurant. If anything, the food is worth coming to Bangkok for! Not having slept in about 70 hours, we made it an early night.
The next day, we went back to Garret's tailor, having breakfast first. I got addicted to Thai Iced Coffee while there; it's delicious. You'd think you're drinking a mocha, but you're not! I also had beef noodle soup, also delicious.
After the tailor, we went to Wat Pho, another huge temple. This one is famous for its "reclining Buddha," which is this enormous gold Buddha, stretched out the length of the temple. I must say, I found it mesmerizing. It had its own sort of aura, and I enjoyed the detailed paintings on the wall.
We walked around the grounds for a bit; saw lots more gold Buddhas (none quite as impressive, though), came across a worship service, which was quite a calming experience.
Oddly, the temple also offers Thai messages, haha. I did not imbibe, though, feels a little awkward getting a message at a place of worship, no?
We left, and took a tuk tuk (it was a challenge convincing Garrett to do so) to the river, where he dropped us off by the river. We stopped at a cafe with a nice river view, then went off in search of a long-boat to rent. We kept walking until we found a longboat with a "reasonable" price, and we hired it. It was nice being on the river, and it was a nice to see how the locals live. For an hour, you forget that you're in a city at all. In fact, it looked a little more like Indonesia than Singapore at this point.
That night, we had dinner at our hotel, and then went to the Sirocco (State Tower) per recommendation. The bar on the 64th floor had a panoramic view of the city, and the bar on the 52nd floor had a pretty bad-ass entrance.
Day 3 was our day of "rest and work." After breakfast, I read some of Kundera's "The Unbearable Likeness of Being" and got some school work done. That night, we went to dinner at a fun Thai restaurant, called, Cabbages and Condoms. It's a restaurant that raises funds for the Population & Community Development Association (and I think it's no coincidence they call it PDA for short), which contributes to Thailand's rural development, education and scholarships, HIV/AIDS education and environmental protection. Suffice it to say, the food was yummy and the atmosphere was fun! We had fun shopping in the gift shop. The irony of the store, though, is that the only shirt sizes they had was XL. 
On our way back, we decided to stop at the Suam Lum Night Bazaar. This was a ton of fun. There were pubs...there was live music...and there was cheap everything! I ended up with a pair of bright green Pumas, some Tshirts, silk boxers (I know, I'm crazy!), and a beautiful pashmina.
Day 4-
I woke up nice and early and wrote my Animation essay (in record time, might I add... though, it proved to not be record material). It was our last day in Bangkok (but our flight didn't leave til 9pm), so we checked out of the hotel. Garrett went to a Thai cooking class, while I explored some more of Bangkok. I wanted to see this "Turtle Temple" some Canadian man told me about. Thanks to Google, I found the proper name of it--Wat Prayoon, and when I got there, I was sure I was at the wrong place. The neat thing about it, though, was it definitely wasn't a tourist spot. It was a local temple, and still quite impressive in its architecture, and much more serene. Though, there wasn't terribly much for me to do there, but I stumbled upon this tiny museum of Buddha relics, and the woman there seemed so pleased to have company. She ended up giving me a book, it looks like someone's Doctoral dissertation on Buddhism.
I decided to go off in search of India-town and Chinatown. I got in a cab, and as soon as we drove off, I found the actual turtle temple, but the driver refused to stop.
In Indiatown, I wandered the streets, it was market after market, and I realized I was where the locals shop (and noticed that the prices were significantly lower, but cheaper goods, too). I kept wandering, and Indiatown merged into Chinatown, and the markets suddenly became more interesting. Rows of fresh flowers and vegetables, etc. Merchants pushing carts. I stopped at a Chinese food stall for lunch. They serve one item: noodle soup (with a bunch of unidentifiable things floating inside, one of which I think was a "fishball" shaped like a star.) For that and a coke, they charged me 45 batt (which is about $1.35), and I could tell he doubled the price for me, cause it took him some time to think about it when I asked.
Chinatown:
After lunch, I walked around the market some more and then made my way back to the turtle temple. The temple was certainly an interesting find; it was more like a secret cave than a temple! There were school kids playing near it, and one little boy was posing for my photos. He showed me all around the temple-cave (literally, you climb up it, and crawl through dark, narrow passage-ways). This boy was having a lot of fun, and he was talking to me a mile a minute in Thai. He then showed me the turtles (which I was beginning to doubt existed), and he picked up every single turtle and chucked them into the pond. (As much as I liked the boy, I was fearing for the turtles. It reminded me of the movie, Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall...Spring Again," ahhhh.) Anywho, I spent a good amount of time playing with the boy, and he seemed to be getting genuine joy from the adventure, and I wondered whether it'd be a positive or negative thing to give him money. I thought it'd be a nice gesture/fun for him, but I also didn't want to diminish the pure joy of life, or feel like I needed to pay him. But then again, if I was a little kid, I'd be thrilled to get money, and he was such a good tour guide, so ultimately, I decided to give him something. My smallest bill was 100 Bat. I held out the bill to him, but he didn't seem to want or acknowledge it. Later, when I gave him two, 5 Bat coins, he seemed happy as a clam, as the coins jiggled in his pockets. He continued to follow me around (after chucking some more turtles) and helped me find my way out. He seemed like a sweet kid. I hope he has a family!
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