Bangkok!

This week I had my midterms, which were very stressful! After a week of studying and not having fun we went to Bangkok! I went with three of my good friends and met up with another girl for one day. We left Friday night on a train out of Chiang Mai that left around 9pm and we arrived in Bangkok about 9am. The train had seats that reclined, but still were not very comfy. Once in Bangkok we took a city bus to a different bus station. On the bus we were able to experience Bangkok traffic! It took us forever to get to where we needed to go. Once we arrived at the bus station, wouldn’t you know, we got on another bus. We took an hour and a half bus ride to the Maeklong railway market. 

This market here has been around for a long time, but the city built a railroad through the middle. Instead of moving the market somewhere else, they kept it in the same place. Now when the train comes through every day, they pack their things up and pull back for the train to come through. Some of the fruit or fish that is on the ground doesn’t get pulled back and the train goes on top of it, dusting it with exhaust. This was very exciting to see and thankfully this is still a hidden gem of Bangkok because there were hardly any foreigners there.  When the train came through we backed up against a wall and it passed by right in front of us. And then the second it was gone the market was back to normal! It was quite a sight and I suggest you look it up on youtube! I definitely want to give a shout out to my Grandpa for showing this market to me after he saw it on TV!

Railroad Market.. you can hardly tell the tracks are even there!

Getting ready for the train

Here it comes!

Next we took another bus to the Amphawa floating market. There are several floating markets all over Bangkok, but we choose this one because it was close to where we were. We walked along the dock where there were shops on one side and then in the water there were vendors in their boats. They were selling everything from food to flowers to clothing off of their boats! I’ve been to a lot of markets, but this was by far the most unique way of selling I have seen. 

Floating Market

Later we went shopping for a while in Bangkok before checking into our hostel. Our hostel was very nice and we shared a room with two girls we didn’t know.  We then went out to experience Bangkok nightlife! We had a so much fun that night enjoying our one night in Bangkok. But this didn’t come without some hiccups.  We were all riding in a tuk tuk and I was on the outside of us all. While in traffic, a motorcyclist came and grabbed my purse out of my lap! BUT! I was wearing a bag my Aunt Lynn had given me that had straps to go around my chest so he did not get away with it. It was a good lesson and wake up call for us all to be very careful with our belongings because thieves are very sneaky!

driving a tuk tuk!

 On Sunday we took a bus to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, one of the most famous temples in all of Thailand. We got there during “lunch hour” so we had some time to kill. We met a Thai man who told us what else to do in our free time and even set us up with a tuk tuk driver to drive us around for extremely cheap. After last night we were skeptical that this was a scam, but he was genuinely helping us! We went to another temple near by where we met another Thai man who helped us go through the motions of how to make a wish, he was there making a wish for his son who was getting married the next week. He too was very nice and pointed us in the direction of more shopping. After buying more than we should have, we went back to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It was a huge campus with pagoda’s and buildings everywhere. Inside the biggest building was a statue of a HUGE gold reclining Buddha.

The four of us at the temple

Giant reclining Buddha

We finished the day with eating on the river and trying to cool off from the heat. We left Bangkok on train around 6pm.  The train we took home was a sleeper train, which meant that we would all get our own bed. I had a top bunk, which was comfy but seemed to wobble a lot.  I had a great time in Bangkok and will update my blog again after I get back from India next Tuesday! 

My top bunk!