If you haven’t heard, we’re currently in Bangkok. Our wifi situation so far has been pretty frustrating (think about going back to dial up days). Now think about how much more frustrating it is when you have no plans and you depend on the internet to figure out where you’re going to go next, how you’re going to get there and where you’re going to stay. How did we travel before the convenience of the internet?! I’ll stop complaining (for now!) since after we left Calgary, I heard that the cold and snow rolled into town. At this point I’ll take heat and sun at the cost of shitty wifi!!
When we left, the only thing we had booked was a live aboard dive trip out of Thailand on Nov 9, so we figured we’d head there right away and make our way to where we needed to be. Flights worked out well, but there was a bit of nail biting as when we arrived at the airport, we were told there were slim chances on both of our flights. We got into Bangkok on Nov 1 in the evening and I just missed one of my cousins who ended up being in Bangkok and leaving the morning of that same day. When we arrived in Bangkok I had a loose plan of heading to Chiang Mai (where I took my massage training last year). We were getting into Thailand just before Loy Kathrong which is the festival we had hoped to go to in Chiang Mai last year (candles on the river, lanterns sent into the sky . . . . I’m sure you’ve all seen the pics). If we would have arrived a day earlier, we may have had a chance, but by the time we arrived flights to Chiang Mai were either booked up or ridiculously overpriced, so we made the decision to start by getting our bearings and exploring Bangkok a bit more.
Last year, Bangkok overwhelmed us. This time around there has been a familiarity which I think has given us the opportunity to get to know and appreciate Bangkok a bit more. We’ve somewhat “taken it easy” by:
- visiting a famous temple
- spending a couple of hours getting lost in the maze of a one of Bangkok’s largest markets
- eating well
- participating in the Loy Krathong festival
- visiting a floating market
- witnessing B-Rod’s Charlie Brown moments add up
I’ll leave it at that for now (with a few teaser pics) to see if I can even get this to publish! Stay tuned (hopefully for part 2!)
