Bangkok to Ko Chang...

Our Thailand adventure began 10 days ago when my dad dropped us off at SFO. Seems like so long ago and yet time here in Southeast Asia seems to be flying by. The flight to get here is a killer. This place is awesome but it's no wonder that people in the States aren't just popping over for a quick vacation. We flew out at noon on Thursday and arrived at our hotel at 1am Saturday morning. Hello jet lag!



So, we spent the first few days in Bangkok cruising around checkout out the sites. Bangkok is huge with an interesting contrast between beautiful gold and jewel encrusted temples and right next door poverty and despair. The city has a very metropolitan swanky feel in parts and then very third world urban nastiness in others. I guess it's like any huge city i just hadn't envisioned the modern, high-tech metropolitan side. Our hotel was near Khao San Road which is a mecca in the city for backpackers and budget travelers. The majority of the people we've seen in Bangkok have been european (english, german, swedish, etc.) and not too many americans. I'm not sure why, but it's felt cool to be in this touristy spot and not be surrounded by people from the states. Makes it feel even more like we're really far from home.

We explored beautiful temples (Wats) with enormous golden Buddhas, walked the streets looking at all the stuff for sale. There are these incredible markets, and night bazaars, and roads famous for their shopping. It's the strangest thing but there are hundreds and hundreds of these individual shop keepers who set up shop on the street each day. Every three booths it's the same exact stuff as the guy had a few booths ago. It's hard to imagine with all the competition that people can get by but then again, there are A LOT of shoppers out every day and every night buying crap (including mags and i). Have i mentioned how cheap it is yet? $1 equals 35 Baht and your money goes a long way. A taxi ride anywhere in the city will cost around 60-80 baht, an entree is often 50 baht, etc. It's a nice relief to have our money go so far after the expense of Hawaii. We indulged and treated ourselves to expensive 90 minute thai massages at a fancy spa that set us back 450 baht ($13).

So, after walking, taking taxis, tuk-tuks, and the sky-train all over Bangkok, we decided it was time to get out of the city and head for the islands. We caught a bus that would take us to the far South East province in Thailand called Trat. From here we took a ferry to the Island of Ko Chang. Ko means island and Chang in Thai is Elephant so Elephant Island here we come.



more soon...