Finally, the LAST post of the trip… a month late! Well, at least I finished, right?
Anyway, Bangkok I think was my favorite part of the trip, solidifying a fact that I already knew… I am a city girl at heart. Bangkok is a really fun and interesting city, and I hope I get the chance to go back and see more of it, as well as the rest of Thailand, one day!
Anyway, we flew in from Phnom Penh and grabbed a taxi for a pretty long ride to our hotel. We decided for the end of the trip to stay at what is actually managed apartments, and it was a really great place to stay. The first night we just walked around the area, and then grabbed dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Patpong. This area happens to also be the overpriced tourist area, which was really rather uncomfortable with all the propositions for “shows”. We probably should have brought a guidebook of the area, because then we would have known, but oh well!
Room and view
Streets and flowers
Patpong
Those flowers smelled divine; in the jasmine family I think they were!
The next day was a walking tour of chinatown. We tried to follow the tour laid out in the guidebook but gave up; the streets were confusing, we got lost, and it was hot. So we just saw a few things and then went back to cool off!
Solid gold Buddha at the first temple we went to
Around Chinatown
Pretty chinese style umbrella to keep the sun off. I bargained for it, but not hard enough lol
Narrow streets
After relaxing in the evening we took off to explore the area around the hotel. Kenji got a few shirts tailored for him, we grabbed ice cream and sandwiches, watched the sunset, then took off for another area we heard was good for shopping. Said shopping center just so happened to be… right in the area the protests were going on. Actually, we got a bit turned about getting out of the skytrain station and managed to walk right into the camp. We skirted around, asked a few people to point us toward the shopping area we wanted to get to, and eventually got there right before they closed. We still managed to get shopping done, and everything seemed to turn out just fine!
Actually, the shopping was pretty amazing! We both had a lot of fun and got a lot of things!
Mmmm, ice cream!
Temple shaped like a boat
Sunset
And shopping outside the complex!
Next day was our second walking tour, which also didn’t turn out as planned. The heat was just really oppressive, so we just skipped a few temples. We did see the palace though, which was pretty amazing if only for the sheer amount of bling on it!
Murals and guardians
Everything seemed covered in mirrors and jewels
Shiny!
Okay, I took a LOT of shiny pictures… just lemme get through them!
The first pic is a scale model of Angkor Wat for some odd reason…
One last set
The temple for the spirit of the city, right outside the palace
After walking around for a long time, we decided to head back, but I at least wanted a picture of Wat Arun across the water.
We rested, then decided to go back to the shopping area of the previous day. Some of Kenji’s shirts didn’t fit, so we were going to see if we could exchange sizes. On the way we stopped in at A&W (yay!)
Yay!
The red shirt’s camp near the shopping center
This place is awesome for shopping!
I got a watch, among other things!
Our plane was SUPER early the next morning, so we called it a night and got ready to go. The plane ride home was pretty uneventful, and we got to Japan just fine, found a bus, and headed back to Gunma. On the way we were pleased to see wisteria blooming, which means we hadn’t missed them in Fujioka!
Cool green with bits of purple
And that’s it! Now I can go back to posting the normal stuff, including soon pictures of the house I will be moving to by the end of the month!
