Traveling in Thailand: First stop... Bangkok

Young monks headed up the temple

A late post from Bangkok...

I hope all is well and that you all have had a chance to view some of the pictures that I posted on Facebook. Things have been going very well here in Thailand and I am pleased to say that for a solo trip, I have been doing quite well. Thailand is only my second solo trip and I was actually excited to be doing this journey alone. My entire trip in Thailand will be for a full 13 days. I am quite excited!

My trip began in Bangkok. I flew from Dubai to Bangkok for about $350!! I know... that is like a domestic flight in the states! Bangkok is interesting because it is a busy city and everything that you have ever heard about Thailand happens here.

When I flew into this country, I met up with a teaching couple that I used to teach with in Morocco. Tim and Arnelle looked out for me and made sure to show me a good time. They are working and living in Bangkok, so I was able to chill with them for a day. When I showed up to their house, we sat and talked for a while and then we decided to hit the streets right off. Honestly, there are some parts of Bangkok that are beautiful but there are some parts that are real sketchy as well. During the day, I was able to visit a few of the temples, which were full of other tourists like me.

We were able to climb some of the tallest temples and had a great view of the city. I definitely had one of those moments where I had to just sit still, thank God and embrace the moment for what it was. Although the temples are beautiful, they get overwhelming after a while. After about three, that was enough for me.

Bangkok also had some great food. I had some great Phad Thai noodles and also some good soup made by a girl from Cambodia off of the street!

Girl from Cambodia

After our day time exploration, we had the chance to explore the night.

Now  before I came here, I had already heard some weird things about Bangkok and some of the sketchy things that happen when the sun goes down. Well I can be a witness to tell you that most of it is true. There is a huge girly boy scene here. Girly boys are similar to gay men. Here men are not only dressed up as women but actually live their lives as women. Almost like our drag queen scene but these men are 24 hour divas! They are on the streets entertaining the night but they are also modest salesman at the malls. Some of them have gone through the full change, where surgery was involved and some of them are living day to day as they are. As we sat outside of Nana Plaza for about two or three hours, it was evident what was going on.

There were many exchanges of EVERYTHING and instead of being hush hush and closed, it was all open for viewing. As we watched from the bar stools of one of the restaurants on the street,  a big heavy set guy approached one of the street women standing on the corner. Clearly this guy had no chance with any person in life that had two healthy eyes... however the price was right and the rest was history. The other men from the bar stools cheered him on in victory as the lady led him to the secret place of paradise. She returned about an hour later...

I also had the opportunity to go to one of the infamous ping pong shows. I'm not sure of what is appropriate to put on this post and whats not  but lets just say Rhianna got herself and the Thai bar in lots of trouble for making a public status about what goes on behind those closed doors. If you are interested in what happens just google Rhianna ping pong show.  

Overall Bangkok is a loud, busy, noisy, and dirty city. It reminds me of the many other cities that I have visited in my life. Many times I had to remind myself that I was in Thailand and not somewhere familiar.

Although I was looking at Thai people and hearing the Thai language, the place was too familiar to me. This one goes down in the books but definitely not a place that I need to visit twice. 

Thanks Bangkok...

The Thai taxi... tuk tuk

At the temple people were sacrificing gold...

Ran into one of the protests. Scary but peaceful!

On the train... roaming the city.

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The temples were full of gold...