Hi Everyone: Recently Kim and I took a trip to Thailand. We were there for a week. It was so nice. We had so much fun. We filled our days with seeing the city and getting to know the culture a little better. Below are some of the things that we did and more.
First let me say. That flight (with layovers) was about 24 hours. I was exhausted. When we got there, we checked into our rooms and chilled for the rest of the night on the first night.
Our hotel was not great, although it was advertised as a 4 star. We did not have a window and kinda felt like we were in a cave. Normally when we book trips on Groupon, the hotel experience is great. This time not so much. o.k. so... On to the adventures...
1. Floating Market - I loved this day trip. It was an hour and half away from Bangkok. When we got to the Dam... Floating market, we hopped on a boat where we road through a canal and stopped at all of the shops along the way. After a few stops, you realize that each one has the same things for sale. What I didn't like is that the people are very persistent to the point that they will beg you to buy something. It became annoying. I bought quite a few souvenirs.
Me negotiating...
2. Elephant ride sanctuary : Before I went, I did not know that riding elephants could be a bad thing in Thailand because elephants are ripped from their mom as babies and then broken mentally in order to make them submit. In a lot of cases in Thailand, they are abused badly and very inhumanely. Then, the baby elephants grow up being submissive in an unnatural environment for the pleasure of tourist to ride them, watch them do tricks and feed them for their efforts. Next time I will do more research on excursions when animals are involved. I do not want to support this type of business.
There are some elephant sanctuaries that you can visit and enjoy elephants without riding their backs. Most of these places have rescued these very animals from the bad business people that I supported last week.
3. Night Markets: We headed to these markets around 9 pm on the famous Tuk Tuk car. The market closed at midnight. It was a fun experience. Like the floating market, you can just about find anything here. The night market was full of Thai food, vintage clothing for sale, new clothing for sale, barber shops, nail shops, tons or bars and bars with live bands.
4. Thai Cooking Class: Guys, this was great. The experience was everything. We got to meet our instructor at the market to buy our cooking ingredients and then we walked a short distance to the school to make 4 meals. Yes, I said 4.
5. Shopping Malls - We hit up the MGK mall. This mall has everything, including bootleg apple iPods and fake designer bags. The aggressiveness here is just as real and just as annoying. Sometimes they wont take no for an answer. We also went to the ICON-SIAM Mall. It was elegant and had all the top designer stores such as Hermes, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. The Landscape was great. It was very large (9 floors I think) and gorgeous.
Icon-siam
6. Pattaya Beach - We did this the last day. I am not a Beach person at all. It was hot a little miserable for me. We bought this Beach trip from Viator.com or Trip Advisor. I am not sure. It was not what we were expecting. The aggressive selling continued. We came with a group and had to hang with our group. We hopped on a boat and headed to different locations for things like jet skiing, banana boat riding, walking on the ocean with special helmets (we did this in the DR) and parasailing. All we wanted to do was go to the beach. They charged for each thing, which I thought was included in the money we paid off the website. Then, had the nerve to ask for a tip.
Lunch on Pattaya Beach
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