Bangkok on a Shoestring

Ok, so we are currently in Phuket and we found a cute little espresso shop that has 15 mins free internet when you buy a drink. Here goes Bangkok in 15 minutes or less...

Our two days in Bangkok were action packed. Looking back now I can hardly believe we fit it all in. We got off the plane at about 1pm and were greeted by Kor and his dad and immediately hit the ground running. Kor's dad was kind enough (and smart enough) to buy us some sugar cookies and brownies for the car ride. Our first stop was the Grand Palace in Bangkok. This was built in the late 18th century by one of the king's and is the main temple of worship in Bangkok as well as the center of all discussions and Parliament activities. It was truly amazing. The gold embossed temples were beyond what photos could capture and the Buddha statues were all very beautiful. I especially liked how calm and peaceful the whole palace was. Everywhere you went you took off your shoes and all the temples with Buddha were quiet although we were in the middle of a bustling city.

Our next stop was, of course, the mall so that Koranin could get his long hair cut. The mall was huge. Beyond belief huge and in the center of downtown in an area called Siam Reap. Siam Reap is essentially a few blocks of malls and giant shopping/eating/hotel/business parks. It is high tech and high fashion central. While Kor got his hair cut and ears cleaned we watched a talent show, drank Thai iced tea and listened to his dad talk about funny things KOr did as a kid.

To end the night we went to the Chao Praya river for a dinner cruise. The traffic in Bangkok is INCREDIBLE (as in terrible) and it took us nearly an hour to drive what was probably between 1-2 miles. We made it just in time to hop on the boat and begin the cruise. Normally this event is sold out but due to the protest scares Bangkok is looking a little empty. The cruise was a great way to see the whole city at night and enjoy delicious Thai cuisine. After the dinner we went up to the deck and what did we find but FILIPINO singer and pianist doing Karaoke! We just can't escape them. Of course the woman pulled Kor and I on stage to sing Dancing Queen. Kor's dad is a great dancer, by the way.

We got back to the apartment and fell asleep before our heads hit the pillow. After being awake for 20 hours we were dead.

The next day we got up at 6 am and headed out in a van Kor's dad had rented to go to the "Floating Market." This was such an awesome experience and probably my highlight of Bangkok. The floating market is a series or small stands lining a narrow river. Tourists hop in long wooden boats and float along as they shop. As you are floating along you can point or show interest in a stand and the person working at it will literally fish you over with a long stick with a hook at the end. Lindsay and I got really cool little Buddha and elephant statues as well as some gifts for friends and family at home. Kor's dad managed to buy nearly every food offered on the boats and we got to try a whole lot of new sugary candies and sweets.


Next stop was the ancient city. Due to the traffic in Bangkok it took us three hours to reach this spot. Lucky for us our van driver had a karaoke machine and tv in the back. We were able to pick really old songs (98 degrees, madonna etc). Unfortunately the karaoke company hadn't bought rights to the music videos so we were getting a mixture of scenes with ducks and ponds and bridges mixed with topless women on beaches drinking fruity drinks. It was entertaining for all.

After three hours of Karaoke, sleeping, eating treats and potty breaks we arrived at the ancient city. The ancient city has amazing buildings that have been restored from the "formal time" as Bunpot calls it (Kor's dad) as well as relics of different types of ancient Thai homes and palaces. The whole village is huge and we walked through all of it (probably the most exercise I've had in a month). We went from bridge to bridge and walked through tons of beautiful temples. We stopped and got ice cream on the way, saw some deer (kor decided to feed his ice cream to the deer) and made it back to the car just as it was getting dark.

Our final stop for the evening was MUAY THAI BOXING. You really can't go to Bangkok without seeing this. Kor's dad negotiated with one of the 'brokers' to get us what we thought were pretty good seats right in the front. Turns out they were good seats but only white people, "Farang" as Thai people say, were sitting here. All the true Boxing fans were up in the stands betting thousands of baht on each match. Kor wanted to go up there but the ticket broker said that he wasn't bad ass enough to hang with the big boys.

The first three matches were boys weighing in at about 102 lbs and with a median age of probably 14. These boys are generally sent to their Thai Boxing schools/camps at around age 7 and grow up living and breathing boxing and by 14 are ready to hit the ring. The matches consist of five 3-minute fights. The boxers are allowed to attack using four weapons: fists, elbows, knees and kicks. They use these four so skillfully that it hardly looks like they are hurting. Generally we didn't know who won right up until the very end but on a couple matches one of the boxers would be so badly injured or dizzy that he would essentially surrender and they would just wait out the last few minutes.

Our favorite match was definitely round three. The two boys looked maybe 16 or 17 and they weighed 120 lbs (which actually looks huge when you've been watching little weebee's fight for two hours). During round two red guy got slashed in the eyebrow by blue guy's elbow. He starts to bleed but continues to finish the round. Between rounds he gets his blood cleaned off his face and his coaches attempt to put some sort of wax on it to help the wound close up. This does him no good and each round after he continues to bleed profusely. The ref lets him pause for a few seconds to wipe the blood off his face and he is back at it. Red guy actually is putting up a decent fight; blood and all. Everyone in the stands is cheering on red dude as he is the scrappiest boxer we have ever seen. After five rounds the judges finally announce blue as the winner but the crowd gives red a big applause as he limps off bleeding and sweaty. It was pretty awesome.

The fighting did get a little old after four hours of the same thing over and over and over. Once again we were running on 5 hours of sleep and my attention span was weaning. After the match we headed back to the condo and stopped at a roadside diner for some quick pad Thai and started to do our laundry for the south (at 11 pm). After finally going to bed at 1 am we were back up at 430 am to begin our journey to Railay-an amazing and undiscovered beach town in Krabi province in the south of Thailand.

Overall Bangkok was a blast but also a culture shock. We went from being in poor, crowded, dirty, smelly and overly religious Cebu to walking around a developed city with high rises, normal amounts of children playing, white tourists, beautiful, quiet Buddhist temples, delicious food and no roosters anywhere in sight. We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves. Thailand seems to have some things figured out.

(p.s. I definitely didn't finish this blog in my 15 free mins of Internet in Phuket. It's now three days later and I'm finally getting back to it. Whoops!).