Bangkok

The eagle has landed, I report, the eagle has landed. We are here. Let the amazing adventure begin. 

Feung Nakorn Balcony, home sweet home.
After a 13 hour plane ride, a 5 hour layover in Taipei, Taiwan, another 4 hour plane ride to Bangkok and a 45 minute ride in the (most ridiculous cab I've ever seen), we are here.

The Taipei airport is probably one of the best airports I've ever been too
After getting settled into our hotel, and showering (trust me it was needed x100), we set out for the afternoon. Saturday was Lunar/Chinese New Year so we walked over to China Town to see what was going on. This strip adjacent Charoenkrung Road has more people on it than I have ever seen. The streets are packed with market stalls, street-side restaurants, randomly placed Chinese Temples and a dense concentration of gold shops (that were packed due to the holiday). In preparation for the holiday, there were lanterns everywhere, traditional Chinese clothing being sold and gold decorations at every street corner.





On the way home from China Town, we found a inter-city canal to follow back, which was a nice break from the noisy streets. People's homes come directly of the canal so this is essentially their backyard. It was nice seeing people in their normal daily routines, people said hello (or at least I think that's what they were saying) and we smiled at each other when funny things happened. It was a nice change of pace from the street one block over.



a beautiful shrine on the canal

Things I Learned Today

  1. The Thai drive on the wrong side of the road like the Brits (aka according to D the wrong way)
  2. No logical traffic rules, if any at all apply here leading to complete chaos
  3. It is perfectly normal to have your cabby to have a dying rice rocket with a bungee cord holding the glued on spoiler and trunk closed
  4. There are also limited health codes...
  5. When you are on pedestrian streets you are either dodging, people, trash or motorcycles
  6. Most people do not wear helmets and if they do, it is not strapped
  7. You can eat dinner from street vendors for about a $1.50 a person


Comments

  1. Oh my...that already sounds like more than I could handle. Be safe and have a great time.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Catholic Pilgrimage

I think I'll go to Switzerland today...