Oh those Singapore Nights...: Bangkok part 2...

Day 2- After an exciting day 1, we got up early to not only find Prashant sleeping in sweat pants and a sweatshirt (Somone tell this guy its its 90 degrees outside) but to take a boat ride up the Khlong to some more temples. The boat was essentially gondola with an engine. The driver was flooring it and we felt every... single... wave he hit. Thankfully he slowed down to show us around the river as we passed multiple temples and a ton of really poor-looking shed houses. The word "shanty" comes to mind when you see them. It was a really nice ride though and we got to see many people living right near the river, doing their laundry and trying to sell fruit from their "backyard." We even had a vendor ride over to our boat, hang on for dear life and try very hard to sell us some random trinkets we had no interest in. Somehow Prashant had a few in in hand... which only made the guy think he had a chance for a sale. To this day Prashant still doesn't know how they got in his hand. We bought nothing.

After the boat tour we made it to the temples only to find out we weren't allowed to go in because we were wearing shorts (what were we thinking) but if we waited for 2 hours we could pay 100 baht (3 bucks) to rent a cloak to wear. So we took another tuk tuk ride, complete with stops at fashion stores to "browse", to a couple shorts-friendly temples (there are so many temples) until it was time to don our outfits to enter the temples of the infamous reclining Buddha. Totally worth it, because the Buddha was about 40 meters (for you Canadians out there) long and it was laying down! Not sure why this was so exciting but it was. Snapped a few pictures and headed out to Jim Thompson's house.

Now you might be asking who Jim Thompson is... I was too. Frankly I still don't know. Apparently he is ex-CIA or something, then came to Thailand and fell in love with the country so started to get involved in the silk trade. I guess he also disappeared one day in the jungle and never returned. Anyway he has a huge house and its a tourist attraction to buy a lot of nice silk and stuff. If you are into silk or history, great place to check out. If you are me, you are bored. It also didn't help that I ate some under-cooked chicken satay from a stand on the street before walking in... not a good choice. After the silk house I needed anoher Thai massage so we all stopped in to a place close by. It wasn't as nice as the one before, and screamed of happy endings but we went in anyways. We all had female masseuses (masseusi?) this time, although the lady I got was big enough to be a guy. Still, for 7 bucks I am not gonna complain about an hour long massage. It was great, and shockingly no extras offered. I wasn't going to take it if there was! I am just saying I was surprised. Though bargaining for it would have been fun. (I love to bargain)

Rested from the massage we went back to the hostel to change and go back out, making sure not to step on all of the MILLIONS of cats and dogs wandering the streets. Seriously, the ASPCA would have a field day over here, it was one Sarah McLachlan song away from being a commercial. After showering and changing, we set out to go see one of Thailand's great pastimes: Muay Thai fighting! I was so amped, and made sure to throw out any Bloodsport references I could. I wanted to know the fighters back stories, I needed to know if someone was fighting for revenge like Jean Claude. At the peak of my excitement we arrived at the stadium to see that tickets were $100 per person. And that was as close as we got to Muay Thai. Instead, we headed back to Pah Pong to do some more bargaining/running away from trannies. After Prashant and I taught Rachel how to haggle and she successfully undercut a shopkeeper on a souvenir, we proudly headed out to the Skybar lounge.

The Skybar is one of the most famous bars to visit in Bangkok apparently, and it was featured in the Hangover part 2. It overlooks the ENTIRE city on the 64th floor of a very nice hotel. It was one of the best views in my life, looking out over Bangkok at night with the whole city lit up. It was incredible. My camera phone was so bad and couldn't capture the scenery but I tried anyways. We stayed up there for awhile just taking in the view, and then headed over to a very famous street called Soi Cowboy. Soi Cowboy is basically a street full of topless bars and strip clubs, and the street is crawling with ladyboys. I was wondering if there were any ACTUAL women there, but we didnt stick around long enough to find out/get confused. It looked like Vegas, with lights everywhere and a ton of people. The only thing missing was the slot machines. Vendors were selling bugs to eat, girl/guys were begging you to come into their bars, it was basically the grown up version of the donkey island in Pinocchio. It was quite a site. The night was really late by the time we left, and we had to get up early for our flight so we headed back to the hostel to get a couple hours of sleep before we left.

Thailand was great, and it was one heck of an experience. I learned a few things while I was there:

1. If you tell people you are American, they assume you work for Obama.
2. A one hour cab ride should not cost more than $8
3. "Crocodile wrestling" meant to Prashant that two Crocodiles would wrestle each other. "They would be trained to hate each other, and then forced to kill each other. "- not joking that was serious. To which I replied, wouldn't that be Croc fighting? A new sport in Mexico has been formed.
4. It is not strange to think a male masseuse in Thailand is better than a female masseuse. No matter what anyone says.
5. The line between man and woman is not very clear in different parts of the world
6. Thailand is called the "land of 1000 smiles" but I only saw maybe 6.
7. There are some people in the world who do not like Bloodsport references. (I can't believe it either)
8. In Thailand, they don't use chopsticks. This was strange at first, and I now request them.
9. Do not pay full price for anything. If you do, you are giving up.
10. I don't know the rest of the words to the song, "One night in Bangkok makes the heart.... go... huh huh....