I am back, and still keeping up with the blog posts. This time, let’s all go out of the country! Woohoo!
August came, and so as my birth month, yey! My friends and I went to a place where we got a whole lotta temples, elephants, pagoda, and shopping. Though I did not spend my actual birthday in this place, it was still a bliss to spend the bulk of the month’s budget roaming around and learning more about another country’s culture – Still a great way to celebrate a birthday. Let me share you some snaps and stories I had from that lovely place called Thailand.
So we arrived Bangkok a little past midnight (Bangkok time; -1 hour from MNL), and went straight to the hotel to rest, and well, to have a can of beer. We all know it’s already late and we have to get up early the next day for the first day of tour, but yea we want to drink beer. Priorities. Ha!
View of the metro from our hotel room. Hotel: Bangkok City Hotel –Great hotel to stay.
The next day, we got up early to start our Kanchanaburi tour. It was a long ride. If my memory serves me right, the travel from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi is 2 to 3 hours. According to our tour guide-slash-driver, good thing we went to Thailand on a holiday (it was the Mother’s or Queen’s birthday) because traffic is better, he said. On a regular work day, according to him, the traffic is bad in Bangkok. We have not experience the bad traffic throughout our stay, so I really can’t say if the bad traffic is worse than the “Manila kind of bad traffic.” Moving on, here are some photos from Kanchanaburi.
Jam-packed floating market.
One of the floating market stalls.
A temple along one of the floating market canals.
The colorful trucks of Thailand. Saw this while on our way to the River Kwai floating restaurant. Gonna eat lunch!
The River Kwai fishes.
The bridge over the River Kwai.
Colors, flowers, and boats along River Kwai.
Wang Po Elephant Park. Went to see (and some of us ride) an elephant!
Hello there kiddo elephant! 🙂
Some of my friends, riding an elephant. Noicee!
The Thai-Burma Railway (Death Valley Railway). Great we were able to catch the train passing by.
Some passengers waving. 🙂
View from the railway.
Golden Buddha on Death Valley Railway.
First day’s finished, and we were able to go back the hotel around 8 or 9 in the evening (if I am not mistaken, sorry senior citizen moment lol). We were all hungry and we went out immediately to look for food. Good thing there are food establishments near our hotel (Bangkok City Hotel), which serves cheap but delicious food like noodles, rice, roasted and fried meat and fish, and authentic Thai food. Though I can’t stand some spicy Thai food – Obviously not a fan of spicy food here. Lol.
Anyway, after dinner, we went to a convenience store to buy a can of beer. Again, priorities. Haha! And then, we head to sleep already, because once again, it will be another long day for us the next day.
For our second day of tour, our group went to Ayutthaya. The travel time to Ayutthaya from Bangkok is around 1 to 2 hours. Again, still no bad traffic during our trip since it was still a holiday. Good job! For this trip, we were advised to wear proper attire since we will be visiting mostly temples and the famous Bang Pa-In Summer Palace. If you are planning to go here as well, please consider this advise in planning your OOTDs. 🙂 Here are some snaps in Ayutthaya.
Outside the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace.
The huge lake inside the palace.
A pavilion in the middle of the lake. Aisawan Dhiphya-Asana Pavilion.
One of the sculptures on the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace bridge.
Ho Withun Thasana, or Sages’ Lookout.
Wehart Chamrunt, or Heavenly Light
One of the the Ayutthaya ruins.
And another of Ayutthaya ruins 🙂
The head of Buddha in Wat Mahathat
Wat Mahathat ruins
Part of Wat Mahathat ruins
Street food! Break time from all the walking. 🙂
Elephants in the Ayutthaya center.
Elephants in the Ayutthaya center, taking a bath. Lol
Laughing Buddha in Ayutthaya.
Wat Phu Khao Thong. The top part of the pagoda is actually leaning. Just like the Tower of Pisa
More of Wat Phu Khao Thong.
My Thailand escapade buddies!
Me and the Ayutthaya ruins. Yey!
Aside from the Kanchanaburi and Ayutthaya, there are other places to visit in Thailand. Too bad we have to leave soon. In our case, we just spent the night of day-2 in downtown Bangkok looking for cheap finds, and well, a whole lot more of night life. It was a tiring day with all the walking and drinking, and slept almost 3 or 4 in the morning. Long day, I know, but so much fun.
We spent the third and last day of our Thailand tour roaming around the streets of Bangkok. We went a little gift / pasalubong shopping around the metro almost the whole day, and finally went to the airport that night to catch our flight back to Manila. We arrived the airport way early, and we still have enough time to look around the Duty Free shops. We enjoyed looking around too much, we almost missed the boarding announcement of our flight. Whew! Long story, but to cut it short, it was a really close call. Just take note, always: “G” doesn’t stand for “gate” Lol.
That’s all. ‘Till the next travel!