กรุงเทพฯ - Bangkok

This weekend we went to Bangkok. It was our first real visit, we had only been there when we left the airport after first arriving. We woke up at 5am on Saturday and the bus (more like a van) picked us up at the school at 5:30am. The van had around fifteen people in it counting us and the drive was about five hours long. Once we arrived in Bangkok we were dropped off at Victory Monument. The bus driver helped us get a taxi to take us to our hotel. The taxi was bright pink and the more we drove around the more and more I saw these taxies spotting Bangkok.

The taxi dropped us off at the San Dusit Zoo, which we knew was close to our hotel so we wandered for a little while asking people for directions to our hotel. We found it inside the university, checked in and passed out on our beds for a nap. 

Our hotel

While we were looking for the hotel we met a Kenyan man who told us about his acrobat show that was performing at the zoo so after our nap we headed in that direction. It was also a plus that we knew how to get there because the taxi had dropped off by the entrance in the first place.

San Dusit Zoo:

Ya... we didn't know either.

There were komodo dragons surrounding this pool. 

The would whip their tails when they were agitated but luckily, 

that was all they did. One dragon actually did whip one of us and it hurt

but mostly just scared her, the Thai people in the zoo got a kick out of it.

Time for the show! First up, Kenyan acrobats.

They were incredible

Second: Elephant show

The elephants did everything from dance to Micheal Jackson to shoot basketball.

We couldn't decide how well they were treated so it was a little difficult to fully enjoy it.

After the zoo the acrobats were done and we met them. They were friendly... very friendly. And when I say very friendly I mean they asked us out for drinks and they wouldn't take no for an answer. It blew their minds that we didn't drink or smoke. One even asked for our phone number and insisted on us coming back to the zoo... that was our cue to leave. We just told them how great the show was and walked away, it was hilarious. It was then time for dinner!

Mexican Food!!

Took the taxi a while to find it but the drive was worth it!

We were SO excited to see cheese!

After dinner we just walked around a little. We bought a few things but were tired and not fond of the kind of night life Bangkok had to offer.

The city was HUGE and... dirty. 

We saw rats, drunk people and many other things we didn't want to see. 

We didn't stay on the streets long but we never felt unsafe because we never 

separated but the night life was not why we went to Bangkok. 

The next day we went to the wedding (more on that later) and then took Tuk Tuk to the Grand Palace. 

This is a Tuk Tuk. Only foreigners use them but they are so fun

 and were better at getting through traffic!

View of Bangkok

View of the driver

View of the riders

SUPER nice driver

Not so nice of a driver.. he lied to us about the Grand Palace being 

closed to get us to go to the floating markets... He was a good liar, 

I'll give him that but we didn't fall for it. 

Grand Palace: 

According to Wikipedia - 

The Grand Palace is a complex of building at the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. The palace has been the official resident of the Kings of Siam (and later Thailand) since 1782. the king, his court and his royal government were based on the grounds of the palace until 1925. The present monarch currently resides at Chitralada Palace, but the Grand Palace is still used for official events. Several royal ceremonies and state functions are held within the walls of the palace every year. 

We didn't have much time before we left for the bus so we weren't go inside the palace because you have to change your clothes to be suitable for the palace and there was a long line but we got some great shots outside it. 

After we walked around the outside of the palace we went and saw 

Wat Pho: one of the largest reclining Buddhas in Thailand

Trip overall: great. Will we return to Bangkok? nope. It was fun, we did a lot but Bangkok as a city was big, confusing, dirty and people were pretty rude. The wedding was beautiful and that will be my next post, it was the highlight of our trip!

สุโขทัย - Sukhothai

Sukhothai is a city about two hours north of Phichit and we went for a day trip  to visit this past weekend! Dotting the city are ruins but there is also a city of ruins called The Sukhothai Historical Park. These ruins used to be the capital of the Sukhothai Kingdom in the 13th and 14th centuries. We were lucky enough to live so close to this park and I'm so glad we were able to go and visit. Even though it was extremely hot and I wore all black (Don't ask me why) we had a GREAT visit!!

This is only one area of the park... therefore, we rented bikes :)

First area: Wat Mahathat, the main city

Phra Achana Hand

Like I said, all black... why?

One of my favorite shots Charlotte took!

Second Area: Wat Si Sawai

Is this straight out of the Jungle Book or what?

This tree was full of relics!

There was a well inside

Third Area: Wat Sa Si

This bottom photo was a picture I had found online that I used as background picture on my 

Facebook page in March of 2012, I had no idea that we would go the exact same

 park and I would see it in person! Incredible. 

Back at Wat Mahathat

Ladies we bought water bottles and bananas from

These ruins have been worshiped for over 700 years and still continue to be respected and preserved. We saw many Buddhists here burning incense and praying the Buddhas. This shot captures the peace and reverence that surrounds any monument with an age, history and significance like Sukhothai.

ดื่มร้านค้า - Drink Shops

It is a weekly ritual we have began to try new ice cream and drink shops around town. Phichit is a small town but is by no means lacking when it comes to drink shops. We began at this drink shop, it is called "The Rose" and some of us went there every single day for the first two weeks we were here. They have everything from Thai Milk Tea to Blueberry Soda. Tang took us here on our second night and bought six different drinks so we could try all of them and we were just hooked. But since then we have branched out a little and have found some great places for drinks. Coffee is extremely popular here and because all of us girls are LDS we haven't tried any but we love the fun soda, smoothies and ice cream!

At "The Rose"

This day sure was an experience! This is at KFC in our favorite grocery store: Tesco. I ordered 

what I thought was mango ice cream and was really excited about it.. but I was surprised.

 When I sat down and tasted it I realized it was creamed corn on top of vanilla ice cream!! 

It is a joke of ours now that my favorite treat here is anything with corn in it! I tried to eat it 

but was unable to... I ended up buying a 30 cent ice cream cone instead.

Since that day at KFC we have seen corn in all sorts of desserts!

This is my new favorite drink shop!! It is tiny and on the side of a busy road. We think a young couple owns and they speak a little English. The first day we went we only ordered two drinks but 

somehow ended up with four.. and the only English translation of the menu we could get was

strawberry and vanilla but the they told us that the next day they would have an English menu 

just for us! It was so sweet!! I had to take a picture of my favorite shake for my family.

This is a POCKY ice cream shake! SO yummy!!!