Sorry for the lack of pictures here... More to come soon!
We survived our first night bus and arrived in Bangkok in the early morning. Bangkok is incredible. There's always something going on. We have spent a few days here, enjoying the history and lively atmosphere.
We took a boat tour through the extensive canal network of the city. It gave us a good look at over forty temples, as well as the home life of many locals. The canals are lined with very old houses, mostly made of wood and built on stilts by the water. We also visited Wat Pho, a temple housing the largest reclining Buddha statue in Thailand. The temples here are so ornate, with gold ceilings and lots of marble. They are all very decorated and have mulitple Buddha statues inside.
We made a day trip out to Ayuthaya, the previous capital of Thailand which was destroyed by the Burmese army. There are several temples still in tact, each one very elaborate and unique. Many of them had huge steep staircases we could climb. We had a guide for the day who gave a brief history of each temple. Many of them were built as a place for the royal family's ashes or for the royal family to meditate. To top off the day, we got to feed baby elephants, who grabbed the vegetables right out of your hand.
We visited the Jim Thompson house, a historical house full of art which belonged to an American who moved to Bangkok to promote the silk industry. We learned a lot about traditional Thai houses, and finally figured out why there are little gold houses on podiums at nearly every buliding we have seen in Thailand. These are called "Spirit Houses." Buddhism teaches that contructing any kind of building disturbs the evil spirits in the ground. To apologize to the spirits, they build these little houses for the spirits to live in, and the people leave offerings of food, flowers, and water on a daily basis to please the spirits.
We also checked out the shopping scene here. It is insane. The mall we went to was seven floors high, and just massive. It is hard to even describe how much merchandise was in the mall. There were stands and booths everywhere, on top of the actual stores. There were many Western food chains, as well as hundreds of Thai food stalls at the food court, where you exchange money for a universal gift card for food.
We are staying very close to Khao San Road, the busiest shopping and nightlife street in the city. It is packed full of vendors selling clothes, accessories, and delicious Pad Thai and fresh fruit. We have even been successful in finding this cute lady who sells Pad Thai who can make it soy-free for Morgan! The clothes are all so cheap. We both had to buy some Thai pants to wear in the temples. It's a good thing we have one more day here in June before heading home to shop! The street is also full of restaurants, bars, shops, and spas. We really can't get enough of the $10 massages.
The street is also full of taxi and tuk-tuk drivers, who always want to know where you are going. The tuk-tuks are like motorcycles with a carriage attached behind with a bench. They are all colourful and have disco lights inside. The drivers are pretty aggressive in traffic, weaving back and forth between lanes to get there as fast as possible, but so far we haven't had any issues.
We are heading up north to Chiang Mai tonight on another night bus. We are looking forward to coming back to Bangkok at the end of our trip!