un/thai/tled or some other clever wordplay

Bangkok is an amazing city with so much to offer, it can seem overwhelming at times when planning a short trip. I was there for 6 months and didn't get to see everything I wanted to see! Here's a short list of recommendations of things that stand out to me a year and a half out:

Restaurants:

Long Table - Sit outside, it's an amazing view of the city

Cabbages & Condoms - Novelty aside, it's for a good cause and they've got good food

Terminal 21 -  Food court, the mall is a sight to see

STREET FOOD - I cannot emphasize this enough. EAT ALL THE STREET FOOD. But avoid the street food on Khao San Road as it can be over-priced and under-flavored. Fresh fruit is a MUST. 

Sights:

Royal Palace 

Wat Pho - Get a massage!

Dusit Throne Hall - NOT Dusit Zoo (it will just make you sad)

Chinatown

Chatuchak Weekend Market - Come with plenty of cash and get ready to bargain

Jim Thompson House

Nightlife:

RCA (Royal City Avenue) - Cab drivers will know this place as "Ahh Cee Et", an epiphany realized after a major headache. Route 66 is my favorite of all the ones on RCA.

Sukhumvit Soi 11 - A street with tons of restaurants/ highend hotels/ clubs/ bars. Go here AT LEAST once. My favorite club is Levels.

Khao San Road - Of course. Favorite: The Club Khao San.

Beyond the City:

Amphawa Floating Market - Gotta do the firefly tour, sometimes hard to see the fireflies but the sunset is worth it

Chaing Mai - I spent 2 weeks there! So many temples! Doi Suthep on the mountain is a must.

Ko Tao - SCUBA DIVING! Great for beginners, you won't find a better place in the world to get certified. 

Ko Phangnan - Full Moon Party. Neon paint beach party. 200B buckets of Red Bull and vodka. Enough said.

Most of these places are what you'll find in every guidebook, to be honest. Start at one of these places and wander through the city (bring a map!), that's how you'll find the best stuff. There's an alleyway of street stalls selling handmade clothes and other goods near MBK, but I couldn't begin to tell you how to get to it. Always have "temple attire" on hand (long pants & something to cover your shoulders), because you never know where you'll end up.

Above everything else - I recommend carrying the Lonely Planet Thailand around with you everywhere. Wifi is abundant in Bangkok, but it's not always very fast or reliable. 

All of my Thailand-specific blog posts from when I studied abroad there are here. Feel free to message me with questions!

I got back about 12 hours ago, and I just woke up from a very deep sleep.  Finally home! 

The 5th of December marks the King's birthday, so celebrations were held in honor of the beloved king.  A few of us ventured downtown to join in the revelry, donning yellow (the king's color) for the occasion. By the time we got downtown, the celebrations around the Royal Palace had died down a bit, but we still managed to launch a lantern, buy some street food, and watch the hoards of people walk by. 

At one point, a sweaty European fellow clutching a Chang beer comes up to us and says "Excuse me, do you speak any English?" To which we answered, "Well, just a little bit." He then proceeded to ask us what was all the hubbub was about, as he had just arrived in town and seemed to have promptly gotten drunk enough to not notice the "Happy Birthday" signs hovering over the ubiquitous billboards of the King. He said his thanks and then stumbled off into the crowd. Oh, farangs. 

The next day, Emily, Wilton, Wilton's mom and I took a cooking class in town.  We learned how to make tom yum goong (spicy sour soup with shrimp), panang curry with chicken, green curry with chicken, stir fried chicken with cashew nuts, and mango sticky rice for desert.

Photo courtesy of Emily. 

It was an absolutely delicious meal and a really neat experience. They gave us cookbooks so that we could recreate the dishes at our leisure. 

[This is the account of the first time I went to Chiang Mai, Thailand's "second city."  It will be brief, and picture-laden, as I want to keep you all updated, but I also must devote some time to packing!!]

26 November 2012 - 

Bangkok: Board the bus around 11pm. It's a pretty swanky bus, outfitted with screens for every seat that store a collection of movies to view at the ticket-holder's discretion. After watching two movies (The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy), I try and fail to sleep. Regardless of swank, it's still difficult to sleep on a bus. 

27 November 2012 -

6AM arrival time in Chiang Mai, our group of 8 sleepily exits the bus terminal and climbs aboard a 'taxi'. It's not your conventional taxi, but it works the same.

Chiang Mai's taxis:

(photo not mine)

Pause for a break in continuity that I normally try to uphold on this blog-

Tonight I sat in a Thai  restaurant bamboo shack, ate Indian food, avoided the unseasonable downpour in the midst of the dry months, and watched "O Brother Where Art Thou?" projected on a sheet in said bamboo shack.  

Monday (the 26th) is my last final exam of the semester, for my Pollution Control Technology class. It was an interesting and informative course, but I will be glad to see it come to completion. The examination will end at approximately 4PM, and in keeping with tradition of a hurried departure, I will be leaving for the northern province of Chiang Mai at 9PM. I will be there for a full 6 days with 9 other people. Our trip, not accidentally, coincides with the Loi Krathong (literally translates to “to float a raft”) holiday on the 28th. This holiday entails sending small candlelit rafts with offerings down the river, and in Chiang Mai, is often accompanied by the launching of lanterns.

(More info can be found at http://publicholiday.org/calendar/loy-krathong/ )

It is supposed to be a wonderful experience and I can’t wait to go!

On the 18th of November, Standard Chartered held it’s annual Marathon in Bangkok.  Marathons, however, were not the only length of race that they offered.  There was also the option of half-marathon, 10K, 4.5K, and 1.5K.

About a month ago, I signed up for the 4.5K.  And on the 18th I woke up at 4:30am to make the 6:30am start time. 

There were hundreds of people there from all over the world.  When we arrived around 5:45, the first marathoners were just getting in from their 3AM start time. All of the winners for the marathon, in every category, were Kenyans.  Go figure. 

The sky began to lighten as I took my place at the starting line. 

The run itself was incredible.  It started and ended at the Royal Grand Palace, and looped around the Democracy Monument, and went by different sights of the city.  

Overall, it took me about 29 minutes to run the 4 and a half kilometers.  There is definitely room for improvement, but it was my first race, and I was pretty happy about it.

I guess you could say I went from couch-to-5K in ~5 months. 

November started off on a good note, with Halloween at my back, and two months to go. 

Last minute research consumed my project group, turning in a first draft of our term project (the Life Cycle Assessment of Diesel in Thailand, which follows diesel from extraction to use in a car and totals up all the emissions and energy use at each stage) on the 5th.  We presented our project on the 8th, and got healthy amount of criticism from our professor, after which we buckled down to work twice as hard before we had to turn in our second draft. 

The following week, I had a final in the same class, and studied diligently for it.  I'm still not sure what my grade is, but I feel as though I did adequately enough on it.