Thailand-Bangkok

I've decided to break my trip up into cities. That way its not the worlds longest blog post.
To set up the trip a little, I kind of already talked about my no regret thing. But to take it back a little further and introduce my traveling partner, it goes clear back to 2003. When I first moved up to Utah State the first couple days were super hard. I moved up a couple days before school started and one of the days I went out to the pool and met 2 super nice guys...Russ & Matt. I stayed in pretty good contact with Russ for years after and then lost touch.
Recently at a dinner party I ran into him again and we went out to lunch to catch up. While catching up we were talking about travels (we both LOVE to travel) and I mentioned I wanted to go to Thailand and couldnt find anyone that really wanted to go. Long story short...he was dying to go to Thailand and there you have it!
Our first stop..Bangkok!
We did a lot of studying and asking around to people that had visited so we could make the best of our 17 days. Most people said they werent a fan of Bangkok and not to spend a lot of time there. We basically just wanted to look around a few temples and of course look for my grams spot.
So I met Russ at the airport and off we went!























Its actually really fitting that Russ is already carrying my green bag before we even left. I am a girl, and to try and pack 17 days worth of stuff in a backpack is tough! So my pack was a bit heavy and he was kind enough to carry my green bag a lot of the time.
The flight was of course incredibly long. It took us almost 30 hrs to get there.
I always made fun of travelers that wore these crazy neck pillows. I will NEVER travel without one again! It was awesome!


















We had a layover in Tokyo and stopped for some food.
I had heard Tokyo was super spendy. We had a quick bowl of Ramen which was over $10!


















Just a couple quick warnings...Since there was only 2 of us and most of you dont know Russ, there is going to be a lot of pictures of just me. If feels kind of awkward posting a ton of pictures of just me, and also I only wore make up twice. And by make up, just mascara.
We flew into Bangkok at midnight and took a taxi to our hotel.
It was SO hot. Even at midnight I was just dying of heat.
We didnt sleep at all that night, but thats to be expected.
The next morning we got up and had our first banana pancake! We had heard all about them.


















We then went out to the street and found our first Tuk Tuk
















I obviously didnt drive. Bangkok is crazy. We had a nice guy named Leim that drove this Tuk Tuk. They are super cheap and he took us around to all the temples for really cheap.
We went around to a few different temples.
It just so happened to be Chinese New Years so it was packed everywhere we went! And Hot.
This was a huge Budda where people were buying flowers and inscents to lay at the feet of the Budda.

















I love the knick knacks they were selling on the street.
Good thing I had NO room in my bag or Id have a whole lot of "stuff"
















One rule of some of the temples (or so we read) was not to show the bottoms of your feet.



















We then went to the Grand Palace where my Grams picture was taken. That was a happy sad time. To see those pictures click here
To even get through the gates you had to be properly dressed. We both had longer shorts and shoulders covered but it wasnt good enough. Thank goodness I had my Grams trusty blue skirt they said would work. Russ had to rent these awesome blue pants.
















These silly people saw him pose and wanted the same picture. I was laughing so so hard.























Heres a few pictures from the Grand Palace


























This guy didnt budge. Nothing.



















After the Grand Palace we went and had our first real Thai Curry























We then went and rented our own long tail boat to take us on a 1 hr river tour. A lot of people were going in huge groups, but it was only like $10 to go just the 2 of us for a whole hr.
It was amazing. There were houses lining the whole river as long as you could see.
















This lady was selling stuff on the river.
Russ bought a few things from her.




















There were cute little kids playing in the water everywhere. It was so hot, I wanted to join them. They were always so cute and was excited to see you and wave.























By the time the boat tour was over the sun was just about getting ready to set


















So we went back and got cleaned up a bit and went to dinner. I was not a very fun person to be with since I fell asleep TWICE at dinner.
This picture was takin right after. I literally think Russ had to hold me up. haha I was so so tired.


















But it was still pretty early so we hung out on the dock for a bit.























We found this tree, and I loved how they hung the lights. It makes me want to do my lights like this for Xmas























I wanted to get on their time schedule fast so I forced myself to stay awake.
Thailand is famous for cheap massages. So I went to get my first massage after sitting on the dock. Unfortunately I slept through most of it :) But still $7 for an hr massage!
We took over 1,500 pictures, so I am just going to highlight each city.
That is Bangkok in a nutshell.