destination: "Thailand" [1 of 2]
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
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.
