Our month in New Zealand absolutely flew by! From skydiving to glacier hiking we did NZ the right way and met some of the best people! Doug and I spent our last few days in Auckland and then we were off to Thailand.
After a day spent in Auckland totally homeless we were ready to move forward. Our flight didn't leave till 7am on the 10th but we didn't want to pay for a room on the 9th that we would hardly be staying in. So, we packed up all our stuff and took it to the streets. We spent the 9th wandering around Auckland with our backpacks doing a few random things which included:
- Doug getting a haircut (it was time)
- Doug and I mailing a box of random
things home along with postcards
- buying The Hobbit (after spending a
month in NZ, I'm pretty sure it's a sin
that I haven't read this book)
- wandering around trying to find some
free wifi
- spending a large amount of time at the
harbor reading The Hobbit, napping,
playing cards, and people watching
Finally, at around 10pm we caught a bus to the airport and then spent the night in said airport (at least this time we found comfy benches and didn't have to sleep on the floor). Altogether our travel time was 17 hours, which included a 5 hour layover in Melbourne, Australia. We arrived at 7pm Bangkok time and let me tell you--- we found out fast that we were not in NZ anymore! Woah baby were we not in NZ!
After we got through the initial shock of realizing no one around us spoke English, the visa form confusion, and the constant crowds of shoving people... We made it out to the curb of taxis! Woo! (It was an accomplishment). We beyond needed to shower and were certainly a little jet lagged but we made it to Thailand. Next all we had to do was communicate with a taxi driver for another 20minutes to show him where our hotel was.
And after a few wrong turns, a couple sketchy alleyways, a sighting of a few ladyboys (look it up if you dare), and some miscommunication with the receptionist- we made it to our hotel room! Woo! The next day we woke up, ate breakfast and took a taxi into the city of Bangkok!
Doug and I had booked a hostel on Khaosan Road but before we got there we wanted to explore downtown. Mind you, we still had our packs. So there we were walking through the very crowded streets of Bangkok, bags on our backs and nervous feelings in our stomachs. This place was totally new to us. It scared me a bit but I love that feeling-being in a new place and immersing myself in a new culture. I've never been in a location where I had no idea how to speak the language. But you learn something new everyday! People here understand "thank you" and a polite smile can go a long way in any culture and for our crazy day in Bangkok that is all I needed.
In all we walked about 6 miles that day. We took a taxi to see The Golden Buddha. It was the first time we entered into the realm of monks, meditation, and Buddhas, but it wouldn't be our last.
After walking around the temples for a bit, we immersed ourselves in Chinatown and by that... I mean we got lost :)
The amount of people movin' and shakin' in Chinatown and in Bangkok in general is unreal. There are food stalls and street venders everywhere you look, completely surrounding you.
But then you turn down a random street and it's totally calm and normal.
Once we made our way out of Chinatown we stopped for lunch in a random little cafe that I can't even tell you the name of (because I can't remember it and I probably couldn't pronounce it anyways). We ate vegetable Pad Thai and had sweet buns. I wasn't sure what the sweet buns were and I'll be honest I mainly got them because they looked like the food in the Disney movie, Mulan. Well, it wasn't a bad move on my part because they were delicious! They looked like balls of dough but were steamed and fully cooked and they tasted like a very sweet soft cake.
After lunch we wore out some more of the padding on our shoes and eventually caught a tuk tuk to the Recling Buddha.
The tuk tuk ride is sort of a right of passage in Thailand, something every traveler must do. A tuk tuk is basically a motor bike with a cart/seating attached to it.
You sit in the cart (bags and all) and don't wear a seatbelt because you don't have one and then you hold on to whatever you can and try not to fall out.
They probably aren't the safest form of transportation, but they are kind of fun. Plus it's entertaining to haggle with the drivers on a price.
The Recling Buddha is this huge (Buddha) 46meter long statue that is portrayed on its side and stretches the length of a massive temple.
While visiting this Buddha we truly started to appreciate the amount of detail that goes into the creation of the temples and the Buddhas. We visited many other Buddhas aside from this one. The artwork in Bangkok and the intrinsic detail of the buildings will blow your mind.
After Doug and I had visited numerous Buddhas, we decided it was time to head to the other side of Bangkok towards our next source of lodging, the D&D inn on Khaosan Road- the street of backpackers.
Khaosan Road was a pretty awesome experience- great food, interesting people, and nice lodging which included breakfast (bonus!). All the venders try to get you to buy things, but it's all part of the experience.
Everything is super cheap here, which works out nice for us. One U.S dollar is roughly 32 Thai Baht.
Our third day in Bangkok we spent mainly around the Khaosan Road area. This was also the day we decided to get Thai massages. It was $6.00 for an hour-we could not resist!
The massage was .... Crazy. Doug and I were taken up a few flights of stairs, had our feet washed and given odd clothes that reminded me of scrubs. Next we went into a room with mattresses on the floor. At first we really did not know what we had gotten ourselves into but it was fantastic. The massage women stretched us out and had us in all sorts of positions that at one point I literally thought my head was going to pop right off. Also about half way through the massage I looked over at Doug and his lady was straight up punching him in the back. I about lost it, but I couldn't even laugh because my lady was busy pulling my cheeks apart and pushing down on my nose! What an experience is all I have to say. We walked out of that place feeling super relaxed and I felt two inches taller! I have a feeling there will be a few more massages in our future while we are in Thailand.
After the massage we ate lunch, FaceTimed our families and wandered around a bit more before packing up again to catch a night bus to Chiang Mai.
My first initial thoughts of Bangkok were that it was an insanely chaotic city. After spending a few days there- I still stick by that statement. However, though it may be chaotic, it has a rhythm. People move and go about there day in a fairly laid back manner. I never saw anyone get mad at the amount of traffic or flip someone the bird when they got cut off on the road. People come and go as they please and chat with whomever they want. Several people were very nice to us and were very helpful with directions. I feel like a lot of Americans get upset when we have someone in our country who can't speak English. Here, I do not know one Thai word, but even if they can't understand me they still attempt to or will at least smile at me. In a city that's so chaotic and so overwhelming it was nice to have people be so willing to help. Don't think I'm naïve. I know I'm traveling and I know that I need to be aware of my surroundings (duh, have you seen the movie Taken?!? ) I'm just shedding light on the fact that there are good people all around the world and I was pleased to encounter a few of them and was lucky to have them in my path.
If you get anything from this post-- let it be that a smile and a polite head nod can go a really long way. Open your eyes to those around you. :)
That lady at the grocery store with a crying baby in her cart and a tugging toddler on her leg doesn't need your upturned nose and rolling eyes- smile and politely nod people, smile and nod.. :)
Thanks so much for reading and have a wonderful day!!
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