Hello!
We are all here in Bangkok. The flight here was actually not so bad.
Yesterday we went to the big temples in Bangkok: The Grand Palace, The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn). The Temple of the Emerald Buddha was amazing. Everything was gold or made of reflective tiles in a thousand colors. Some are intricate designs made of ceramic tile. None of us had ever seen anything like it. The DC monuments look so bland in comparison.
At Wat Pho, there is the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, which is a massive gold buddha. They also have a massage school there which is the home of Thai Massage. We stopped in for 30 minute massages which cost 320 baht with tip, which is only $10!! We are planning on going for 60 minutes massages today.
We climbed the super steep steps at Wat Arun to get a great view of the city from the top of the temple. Bangkok is huge--there is no way to see all of it. At least the skytrain, subway, and express boats on the river make it easy to get around.
For dinner we went to Cabbages and Condoms, which is well-known here for its work raising funds for the country's family planning program. The food was delicious! I had chicken wrapped in pandanus leaves and some kind of anceint thai appetizer which was fried coconut, shallots, ginger, lime, peppers with sauce, and also wrapped in some kind of leaves.
After dinner, we headed to a local hookah bar. While we were relaxing on the patio, we saw an elephant go down the street! (Kate: "Cathlin, is that an elephant?" Cathlin: "Yes, it is.")
We've been enjoying breakfast the past two mornings at a local place, the Kiwi cafe, obviously run by a Kiwi. Free internet with the purchase of coffee.
Today we are going on a shopping expedition and trying to sort out our trip to Cambodia.
