Bangkok

Hari, Mary, and I arrived in Bangkok on night bus coming in from Chiang Mai. We were dropped off right in the thick of things on Khao San Rd. Khan San Rd is where most backpackers spend their time buying loads of cheap crap from cool tee-shirts, fake Ray Bans, fake IDs, yummy pancakes, street stall Pad-Thai, and amazing fresh squeezed orange juice (Hari was a huge fan). To sum it up, if it can be copied to look like the real thing, you can find it on Khao San Rd.
Our first day was unfortunately spent at the Bangkok Hospital where I was having my ear looked at to see if 1. Everything with my ear was OK and healing (yes) and 2. If I could get certified for SCUBA diving in Koh Tao (no). The Bangkok Hospital was one of the best I have ever seen, the ear specialist I saw even put a video camera scope into my ear to show me exactly how my ear looked with a small hole in the ear drum and what a normal ear looks like. Top notch treatment despite the disappointing outcome regarding diving.

That evening we went out for a night in Bangkok - enjoyed some amazing pad-thai from our street lady who made the best pad-thai in all of Thailand, then we went to a few bars for drinks, buckets, and dancing. Hari and Mary, whose relationship was getting more and more serious, spent the evening dancing the night away.

So the next day we set out to see the city sites. We went to go see the City Palace and the trusting folks that we are, we believed an official looking guy standing near the Palace that told us that the Palace was closed for the afternoon and would be open later in the evening. He casually suggested that we take a boat cruise from one of the main canals to the Wat Arun. After a quick trip along the canals we realized we had been royally ripped off . Never take a canal cruise in Bangkok... Wat Arun is a Khmer Temple with a huge tower that is covered in porcelain. Beautiful porcelain flowers in all colors covered the temple, very unique looking. There we met some local students studying English and they requested an interview with us to practice and ask us some questions. These girls were so cute and shy with their English but did a great job. The interview was one of the three others I would do for students through out my next few days in Bangkok as we realized that there were loads of students doing these interviews around the city. After Wat Arun it was off to the Nine Wonders of Wat Pho. This Wat contains the famous reclining Buddha which lays more then 150ft long and is a beautiful gold with mother of pearl feet. Of all the Buddha's that I saw throughout Asia, this one is probably my favorite. To complete our day of Wat´s it was off to Wat Inthrawihan to see the standing Buddha.

The next day we went to finally see the Royal Palace. The place is huge and contains loads of wats inside. The most important Buddhist wat in all of Thailand is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha which is located in the Royal Palace. The Emerald Buddha is made of jade and is stunning. The wat was filled with monks chanting while they looked at the jade Buddha beauty. The Buddha was dressed in its rain costume (it has different costumes that change throughout the year). The Palace grounds were stunning and quite massive with all the different wat's to explore
That night Hari and Mary took off for Koh Tao to start their SCUBA diving classes, introductory and advanced. I stayed in the city an extra day to take in the sites before I met them on the island. I took a local bus out to Bangkok's China Town to enjoy the shops, food stalls, and some amazing shrimp seafood served to me on the street corner. It was a little like being in China again, with the strange smells, unidentifiable foods, dumplings, candies, and the Chinese language being spoken.

On my last day in Bangkok I broke out of the tourist circuit to just walk around the city and explore. I walked for a couple hours around the outskirts stopping along the way to play with some local children, get coffee in some small cafes, figure out where I was on the map, and just reflecting on the trip. I went to get a Thai massage in some small shop and they pretty much kicked the crap out of me, which is what you want in a massage. After that I was off to Koh Tao...