Back to Bangkok
11/10/2006-11/11/2006
This morning most of the group left Railay Beach and caught a flight back to Bangkok for the last two days of the drip. However, before we left we had to say goodbye to Richard, Jocelyn, Carolyn, Dani, and Michal since they were staying in southern Thailand for a few extra days during their independent extensions of the trip. I think some tears were shed at this point, but I had said goodbye earlier in the morning since I was on a mission to obtain the DVD of the day of scuba diving, which actually was successful but just barely.
We arrived in Bangkok around 2 pm and said goodbye to Travis and Ellie, who were going to a national park in Thailand. Now the trip really felt like it was over since our group had basically been cut in half, but we still had a day and a half in Bangkok. I didn't do much in the evening. I basically just updated my blog (takes a while), wandered the streets near the guest house, and ate some street Thai food.
My last day in Bangkok was a bit more interesting. In the morning most of the remaining group went to the Chatuchak weekend market, which happens to be the largest market not only in Thailand but the entire world. I looked up some information on it, and apparently it contains over 15,000 shops and stalls and has between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors each day. It was a really cool market and much better organized than I expected. You could buy pretty much anything you could imagine. They even had live animals for sale, but I decided to limit my purchases to some chopstick sets and nice little lamps. Here are a few pictures (also see the pic above).
The last picture is a shop selling these pillows shaped like triangular prisms, which we were fortunate to have at some of our guest houses. They are incredibly comfortable, especially to use while reading. I would have loved to get one or a few, but I didn't since it would be such a hassle to pack or take on the plane. I'm sure I can find some back in the US.
After the weekend market (also known as the JJ market), we took the sky train over to Siam where all the huge, ultra-modern shopping centers are located. We were going to see a movie but had a few hours to kill. I checked out some of the shopping centers. Since most of the people and places we've visited on this trip have not been very wealthy, it was interesting to observe the more well off local people in the shopping places. At least with the younger people that I saw, it seems like the emphasis on clothing and image is just like it is in the US. Anyways, we saw the movie The Prestige at a theater at the top floor of one of the shopping centers (see below).
The movie was pretty good with a really cool ending, but one of the more interesting things about seeing a movie in Bangkok is what they show before the movie. There were even more previews than there are in movies in the US. There were about 30 minutes of Thai commercials, American movie previews, and Thai movie previews (those movies looked bizarre). Then everybody stood up for the 3 minute or so tribute to the king of Thailand, which was pretty strange.
After a long (time, not distance) taxi ride back to the guest house, we all went to a local restaurant for one last dinner together (at least what was left of the group). Then we just hung out for the rest of the night at various places. I got packed up for the huge travel day tomorrow back home and got a little sleep.
This morning most of the group left Railay Beach and caught a flight back to Bangkok for the last two days of the drip. However, before we left we had to say goodbye to Richard, Jocelyn, Carolyn, Dani, and Michal since they were staying in southern Thailand for a few extra days during their independent extensions of the trip. I think some tears were shed at this point, but I had said goodbye earlier in the morning since I was on a mission to obtain the DVD of the day of scuba diving, which actually was successful but just barely.
We arrived in Bangkok around 2 pm and said goodbye to Travis and Ellie, who were going to a national park in Thailand. Now the trip really felt like it was over since our group had basically been cut in half, but we still had a day and a half in Bangkok. I didn't do much in the evening. I basically just updated my blog (takes a while), wandered the streets near the guest house, and ate some street Thai food.
My last day in Bangkok was a bit more interesting. In the morning most of the remaining group went to the Chatuchak weekend market, which happens to be the largest market not only in Thailand but the entire world. I looked up some information on it, and apparently it contains over 15,000 shops and stalls and has between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors each day. It was a really cool market and much better organized than I expected. You could buy pretty much anything you could imagine. They even had live animals for sale, but I decided to limit my purchases to some chopstick sets and nice little lamps. Here are a few pictures (also see the pic above).
The last picture is a shop selling these pillows shaped like triangular prisms, which we were fortunate to have at some of our guest houses. They are incredibly comfortable, especially to use while reading. I would have loved to get one or a few, but I didn't since it would be such a hassle to pack or take on the plane. I'm sure I can find some back in the US.
After the weekend market (also known as the JJ market), we took the sky train over to Siam where all the huge, ultra-modern shopping centers are located. We were going to see a movie but had a few hours to kill. I checked out some of the shopping centers. Since most of the people and places we've visited on this trip have not been very wealthy, it was interesting to observe the more well off local people in the shopping places. At least with the younger people that I saw, it seems like the emphasis on clothing and image is just like it is in the US. Anyways, we saw the movie The Prestige at a theater at the top floor of one of the shopping centers (see below).
The movie was pretty good with a really cool ending, but one of the more interesting things about seeing a movie in Bangkok is what they show before the movie. There were even more previews than there are in movies in the US. There were about 30 minutes of Thai commercials, American movie previews, and Thai movie previews (those movies looked bizarre). Then everybody stood up for the 3 minute or so tribute to the king of Thailand, which was pretty strange.After a long (time, not distance) taxi ride back to the guest house, we all went to a local restaurant for one last dinner together (at least what was left of the group). Then we just hung out for the rest of the night at various places. I got packed up for the huge travel day tomorrow back home and got a little sleep.
posted by Nathan O'Brien at
6:25 AM
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