3 posts tagged “thailand”

Our third day is culture day, which was really nice. We were to discover more of Thailand's culture and its people, their history and feel a Buddhist country.

We hired a taxi cab that day, which was referred by our first "tuk-tuk" driver, Chari, we were so lucky to have met such nice Thais, he actually offered us to pay the cab, which was his friend's, Dorn for 1500 baht flat including the gas fare,. which was roughly $40! That was really cheap! We hired him for the entire day and took us to 3 destinations: Grand Palace, Ayuthaya ancient ruins and the famous Chatuchak weekend market.

Headed off to the most famous tourist spot in Bangkok, the Grand Palace; they say that one could leave the other destinations behind but not this one, for it is the true image of Thailand and indeed, it was.

The place was vast with temples and different historical structures and images, each corner is designed with intricate stones and detailed artworks on its walls, one would feel the taste of Thailand's culture gazing on the towering temple pinnacles.

There was an event inside the main temple where the ancient Buddhist culture happened and where the Emerald Buddha is housed, and the monarchy's third princess was their guest of honor. We waited while we wander, but our schedule must be on time so we failed to meet the princess.

We then travelled for an hour outside the city to visit the Ayutthaya ancient ruins, which is REALLY spectacular. The place is a UNESCO World Heritage and it really should be.

Ayutthaya was once Thailand's center or capital but they were defeated by the Burmese and burned the entire city down after as a sign of their rage..

It is an ancient city and what's left in the ruins are the edges of the old structures and the triangular rooftops of the old Rama's [king] palace and temples. The views are really wonderful, in any angle I was staggered by the fact that there's a big kingdom below, waiting to be discovered.

Saw the famous Phra Mahathat or the "The Face of the Buddha", ~Buddha's head miraculously embedded on growing tree roots.

One scary thing about the place is that most Buddha heads in a Wat [temple] were missing, most were looted by treasure hunters, a little bothering but I guess we'll never know what happened to those pieces.

The day was really hot, we were walking in an almost open field, and we feel the Thailand heat, steam to the face and pretty exhausting, but of course, we enjoyed every moment we were there.

Our driver was really nice, he's very warm and entertaining, he engaged us to discussions which made me really attentive to figure the keywords so we could hear what he was saying, thankfully, we understood each other.

Spent the night shopping at Chatuchak market, bargain shopping of cheap but good quality products, loads of people were there since it only opens during the weekends, we went after at the Pratunam Center for more shopping and went up the country's tallest tower, the Baiyoke Plaza Tower 2, we were really tired plus the heavy shopping bags that we were carrying.

 

We even got lost in the area and we were already hungry, but we just checked the place and soared through the buildings as landmarks with a little guide from the people we asked directions from, until we found it and decided to eat in a Chinese seafood restaurant for a fancy dinner.

The night was really tiring, we exhausted every second before our last day of the trip, but it was sublime.

The fourth day was our last day, packed our things and did last minute shopping around the area where our hotel was and errands before our flight back to the Philippines, of course, we took pictures before the flight.

I enjoyed the trip. To visit one of the fastest growing countries and major tourist destinations in Asia and in the world is fulfilling. To learn other countries' heritage and history, the people and the culture is a true education. Everybody must be given the chance to travel.

Gay Thailand:

Ok, this is so frustrating, I only did eye to eye contacts with a lot of guys! It seemed that the gay culture is more accepted in Bangkok than in Manila. I didn't go to a bar, since I didn't know where to go to though I have a list I made from my research and friend recommendations, but I wasn't able to go to any.

There are a lot of cute guys of course, from different walks of life and countries, I could've hooked up with several only if I wasn't with family. There was even a student from the PremCenter, an international school who keeps on looking my way ** naughty me. hahah. 

There were Thailand's famous "lady boys" and they were really pretty.. tall and sexy but I didn't see any hunky chinky-eyed guys, only with weird hairdos.. but definitely cute. I'm going back there to see more of what Gay Thailand is like. =)

more pictures here: x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I visited Bangkok, Thailand last weekend, spent 4 days travelling and exploring the city, visited the tourist spots and endless shopping. It was my summer highlight.

Went with my cousin and two aunts, we took a 3-hour Philippine Airlines flight in the morning and started our trip early after we checked-in at the First House Hotel in the Pratunam area, it was at the center of the city so the common destinations are near.

MBK Center was our first destination, we took a "tuk-tuk", their local jeepney, and to our surprise, we were taken to the Gem Production Gallery, it wasn't our plan to go there but the "tuk-tuks" have this culture of taking a tourist to a store and check the wares and if possible buy something in exchange for gasoline coupons, which for them are of high value for their source of living.

We ended our night quite early, after all, we were a little tired from the flight and we decided that we'd rest very late in the evening the next days.

On the second day, we went with a tour guide [Susie, from GMTC] and roamed the city with other tourists, we visited the Marble Palace, which was the first Buddhist temple I've visited. The architecture is really nice and the buildings' decorations are very intricate. Of course, the tourists that we were took pictures and admired the structure and learned its cultural history.

Thailand

is popular for jewelry production for its abundance with natural resources, we were taken to the Gem Gallery after, it was the second jewelry store we visited.

The gallery was enormous and really unbelievable! I've seen the biggest diamond yet in my life.. huge precious and semi-precious stones too, artistically placed and designed to different kinds of jewelries. It was breathtaking.

We were then taken to a leather shop, there we learned how genuine leather is made and how to distinguish one from an imitation, one needs to somehow scratch the surface and a genuine one wouldn't be torn or scratched, and that the ostrich skin is the most expensive because of its composition, soft yet really hard.

Visited Wat Intharawihan's Luan Pho To or the "~Standing Buddha", Bangkok's tallest buddha.. the image is 32 metres tall and 10 meters wide.. it's really gigantic. it's coated with gold and the interesting part of it was topknot of the image contains the relics of their Lord Buddha himself brought from Sri Lanka..

Our tour guide was really funny and informative, she tells a lot of stories about the city and their culture, she even sang the composed music for the world's longest word, that is Bangkok's: "Krung-thep-maha-nakorn-boworn-ratana-kosin-mahintar-ayudhya-amaha-dilok-pop-nopa-ratana-rajthani-burirom-udom-rajniwes-mahasat-arn-amorn-pimarn-avatar-satit-sakattiya-visanukam".

We then went shopping in the afternoon, we were on our own.. visited Thailand's high-end shopping district: Siam Paragon, Siam Discovery Center, Erawan Bangkok and other Siam malls nearby, selling the most expensive and luxurious items known in the world, from bags to shoes to clothes and accessories.

The city is known for night bazaars too, we went to the famous Suan Lum Night Market and bought pasalubongs and souvenir items, stores are lined-up.. hundreds of thousands of clothes for different age groups and styles, from the most formal to the most odd and disgusting ones. It was interesting.

My feet were really tired of walking, in fact we weren't able to finish all the stores because we must spend the entire afternoon and evening to check all the items there, which would be a little off for a travel vacation.

I noticed that I have adapted with the inarticulate English of Thailand, since English is not widely spoken, we have to give keywords to people when asking.

We planned to see the Elephant shows and the Safari Zoo and try the Dinner Cruise and Floating Market but we figured those require another day, but since we only have limited time for thousands of destinations, we decided to take those off from our itinerary.. after all, the next day would be much more exciting.

..to be continued.