Bangkok, Thailand: Day One

 

Tomorrow is the end of summer vacation and, although I say this every year, I truly cannot believe how quickly it went by. Between English camp, which ended up being two of the more stressful weeks of my entire life, and taking the GRE, the amount of days that I actually got to relax this vacation was pretty much the just the few days that I was in Thailand.

So I’m definitely NOT ready to be back at my desk tomorrow but I am incredibly thankful to have been able to make some amazing memories with a good friend and finally get to see her country for the first time.

Coming off two crazy weeks of English camp, I had honestly hardly been able to think about my upcoming trip let alone pack or research things that I wanted to do while I was there, so when Thursday afternoon rolled around and I found myself sitting on a airplane bound for Bangkok it kind of felt like a dream.

 

 

 

The flight was a very boring five hours long but on the other side my friend was waiting for me. I have a few friends who, no matter what we’re doing with our lives, or where we are in the world, we always somehow manage to find each other. She’s one of those friends.

We went back to her house that night and went out to dinner with her mom and I crashed pretty early.

The next morning I woke up on my true first day in Thailand to hot humid weather and grey skies. Just like home. One of the odd things that struck me immediately about Thailand is how much it reminded me of Florida.

 

 

First thing on the agenda was coffee. We went down to the area near the grand palace and found a little cafe to chill at for a bit before getting lunch.

 

 

 

Then we walked around for a little while before stopping for lunch.

 

 

 

Meal number one was, appropriately, pad thai. And it was fabulous. And cheap. This was just the beginning of the veritable not-stop food tour that took place over the 4 days I was there.

 

 

 

 

Very satisfied, we then walked over to the grand palace.

 

 

 

 

Even from the outside the it’s impressive.

I thought that the on-off rain might deter some people from visiting on the same day as us but once inside it was clear that was not the case.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rain continued to start and stop and start and stop but thankfully it kept the temperature down a liiiiiiittle bit. The grey cloudy sky also made it a lot harder to get good photos but it was a fun challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we’d finished up at the grand palace we took a short boat ride across the river to see another famous temple.

 

 

 

 

This one was, in my opinion, even more beautiful than the grand palace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside was just as gorgeous as the grounds outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there we crossed back over the river again and went to a museum where I couldn’t take many photos until the very end where they showed us to a room at the top of the building that has a really good view of the area.

 

 

 

Very tired from all the walking and sightseeing we then went to a fancy shopping mall to cool off and get some afternoon dessert.

 

 

 

It was delicious and exactly the cool something we needed before heading back home. Once home we chilled for a while and then ate dinner that my friends mom had made. It was, of course, amazing and I was then introduced to what is now my absolute favorite thing on earth. This Thai dessert.

 

 

If you’re confused by what you’re looking at, I was too. And honestly I still kind of am. But the best way I can describe this is like these little green noodle-y guys which are flavored with a Thai aromatic candle, sitting in coconut milk mixed with palm sugar and poured over ice. It’s amazing. And I’ve tried to search how to make it at home and the consensus seems to be, you don’t. Not only does it seem pretty difficult to  make if you can’t just readily buy the little noodles but it also really doesn’t have a name in English so even just searching about it was hard.

Anyway if you go to Thailand, TRY THIS.

 

And that was my first proper day in Bangkok! We covered a LOT of ground and I was completely exhausted by the end of it, but that’s how a first day traveling should always be! It was perfect.

Thanks for reading!!