Bangkok

Val and I spent the weekend in Bangkok. We took a bus from Pattaya to Bangkok on Friday afternoon, which only took us about 2 hours, so it was pretty painless. However, navigating through Bangkok was not so painless. Bangkok has 11 million people, and seems infinitely large. There are many different neighborhoods, and no easy public transportation system. Luckily, taxis aren't too expensive (the most we paid was 8$... typically it is 3$), but they're stressful in their own way. Since they don't speak english, it's hard to tell them where you want to go. On top of that, it seems like they're always trying to get a little more money from you... taking wrong turns, bargaining a price that differs from the meter, trying to get you to stop at a market so they can get a 'coupon' from their friends.... overall incredibly stressful. We didn't get into any trouble, but we did stay pretty suspicious of everyone. I'm happy to be back in a city where I can walk places and the motos and baht buses are pretty reliable.
Bangkok is also crowded. So ridiculously crowded. Stand still traffic at all times of the day. Sidewalks so full of people that you have to walk on the road. Not at all pleasant.

It's not all bad news, though... you get the feeling that Bangkok has a lot of interesting places, surprises around each corner, interesting people to look at, and other unique findings. We spent a lot of time just looking around at everything. It was overly stimulating.

Friday night we met up with my friend Molly who is living in Kanchanaburi teaching english. We went to Kao San Road, which is a famous tourist road filled with many bars, and people... plus little shops and carts selling cool looking souvenirs and clothes. Val and I bought a few things and practiced our bargaining skills, which I'm not so great at. We met up with a few other American English teachers living in bangkok, and it was fun to hear their stories and get some more info about life in bangkok.
Saturday morning we did the tourist thing... We visited the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha. Very beautiful architecture and detail. After, we took a water taxi up to a different neighborhood in Bangkok, where we visited the biggest market in Thailand. It was sensory overload as well, and who knew there was so much "stuff" for sale. Anything you could imagine... clothes, trinkets, toys, paintings, dishware, food... all laid out in stalls, some surprisingly close together. It was fun to explore, and we definitely got lost in the maze of things and were lucky to find our way out.
Saturday night we went out again. I'm not even sure what neighborhood we were in... but it had bright lights, many bars, and stuff for sale. Which describes many many streets in bangkok. Molly was great at showing us new things we could eat... chicken on a stick, sticky rice, papaya salad (my favorite), fried spicy fish (we think it was fish....), roasted nuts, and more... I want to try more street food because its cheap and delicious, but there aren't menus, i don't speak thai, and sometimes I'm not quite sure what it is that is for sale.

For the future... Val and I have decided to return to Cambodia to teach English. While thailand is interesting, the timing and job market in Phnom Penh is much much better. Also, some of our friends from the languagecorps program stayed there and it is a good community of people. Val left today to finish her student teaching there. I will finish my student teaching in Pattaya, travel for ten days in Thailand, and then go back to Cambodia too. For anyone that was dying to visit me in Thailand, you should reconsider Cambodia! It's cheap, and its more rustic... its like Thailand 20 years ago.

That's all for now... I'd love to hear from everyone else, so send me an email when you have time!!