We went to Thailand with Maggie and Neil to celebrate Matt and Neil's 30th Birthday. The trip started in Bangkok, we were there Thursday 11/13-Sunday 11/16. One of Maggie's best friends from home, Carrie lives in Bangkok and was nice enough to let us crash with her. It was so great having a local with us, like our own personal tour guide! Here are some highlights and photos of our trip:
When we arrived we were pretty jetlagged and tired so we went for a quick dinner and had drinks at a cool dry ice bar.
the silk making process
From there we went on a longboat ride down the river complete with beers, fish feeding and a floating market!
That afternoon we got our first of many hour long foot rubs. When there are tons of massage places on every block and all foot rubs and massages are between $6-$10 we took full advantage and got one almost everyday. Little did we know this was just the start of our addiction!
We relaxed with a foot rub before our big night out to celebrate the double 30! We started off with a nice dinner at a beautiful traditional Thai restaurant, Face Bar. After dinner we went to one of Bangkok's famous Sky Rooftop Bars and ended at a open air square area with lots of bars. I think the guys had a great birthday and we had a great time celebrating with them!
Thai food at Face Bar (pineapple shrimp fried rice below)
Sunday we had a very big and ambitious day ahead of us. We were going to tackle 3 temples and the weekend market. We started off with a tuk-tuk and longboat ride to Wat Arun. This temple involved quite the climb up very narrow stairs to the top but the view was so worth it! Most of the temple seemed to be made of mosaic pieces of china and glass put together in the most beautiful intricate patterns.
Tuk-tuk and longtail boat to Wat Arun Temple
Wat Arun
The stair to the top of the temple
Beautiful tiles of china that the temple was made up of
Our next temple was Wat Pho, the temple of the giant reclining gold Buddha!
A sweet monk cooling off this dog on a HOT day!
Our last stop was Grand Palace which we literally could have walked around exploring all day and probably still not have seen everything.
All the temples were made of these beautiful colorful jewels and gold.
All of my skirts were compliments of the temples as knees had to be covered to enter each one.
Then we spent a couple of hours shopping at the weekend market. Wow! This market was insane and soooo big! There is no way you could ever see everything or come close to visiting every area. It was the coolest market I have ever seen! While most everything in Thailand is so inexpensive this market by far had the best prices and deals. Needless to say the girls did A LOT of shopping. The guys entertained themselves by getting massages, having beers and eating Thai street food.
On our last night in Bangkok again, we had a lot to pack in. We went to a ladyboy show which was an experience in itself. The show was hilarious to watch mainly because the talent, lip syncing and dancing was SO BAD! But the "girls" were very pretty so it was still very interesting to see!
Then we went to a few popular nightlife areas in Bangkok. The Silom & Sukhumvit area is where we saw a ping pong show (don't ask...you do not want to know)! Soi 4, a fun area with lots of gay bars and dancing. Last but not least the Soi Cowboy area with lots of bars, and ladys of the night, haha.
Bangkok was an amazing start to the trip and was so fun to celebrate the twins birthdays with friends and family. The next stop was Chiang Mai which I will cover in my next post!
