Not So Native: A Little Bit of Bangkok

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I've been quite busy working since I arrived in Thailand. It hadn't even been 72 hours and I was in the classrooms teaching. The schools I work at are 30 and 40 minutes outside of downtown Bangkok. So if I'm going to Bangkok, I need to make a full-day trip of it to really get around.

So what does a foreigner in Thailand do? He makes friends with the natives and gets a proper tour. Born and raised around Bangkok, my friend Byfern said she would show me around some of the important spots in the city.

Our first stop was The Grand Palace or Wat Phra Kaew as it's called in Thai. But first we had to take a boat ride down the main river that runs through Bangkok. There are several temples lining the river.

Cramped on the boat ride.

Wat Arun.

The Grand Palace is numerous city blocks of temples, statues, decorative walls and other things. It is surrounded by a massive white wall.

It is easy to spend hours and hours walking around. The detail to these buildings and monuments is amazing. You really get a sense of Thailand's heritage, religion and culture when you walk this astonishing attraction.

Just before entering...

Now inside the walls.

Byfern taking some pictures.

Me hanging out with some of the ogres.

Another very large ogre statue.

More shots within Wat Phra Kaew.

Absolutely breathtaking, right?

Then it was off to a place called The Golden Mount, which was about a 15 minute bus ride away -- a free bus ride to boot!

You climb tons of stairs to the top of this hill where you can see all of Bangkok. At the top, people pray, buy souvenirs and do other things. They have all these bells and gongs you can ring on the way up and coming down. It was pretty cool.

I even ran into this little guy at the top. It was incredibly hot that day so he was really panting. What a trooper -- he climbed all that way!

A shot of Bangkok from the top on a hot summer's day.

And then on the way down, we ran into this beautiful swan just standing by the stairs. He had such a personality.

After Golden Mount we hopped in a tuk tuk and drove to the Jim Thompson House. Tuk tuks are a kind of 3-wheeled vehicle unique to Thailand.

A shot from the back of our tuk tuk.

Jim Thompson was an American businessman that helped revitalize the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 60s. He built a large traditional Thai house back in the day that sits right smack in the middle of modern Bangkok. The house is gorgeous. The tour we went on explains many of the house's features: why they were built that way, what they mean, etc, etc.

Sadly, I have no pictures inside the house. Photography was not allowed. Here's a shot of me outside next to some bird of paradise.

If you ever come to Bangkok, I highly recommend visiting the Jim Thompson House.

And I badeee, I badeee, badeee... that's ALL folks! There is so much more to see and do in Bangkok. We really just scratched the surface. I will definitely be making many more trips to soak it all in.

Here are some last photos from the day I think you'll like.

A model from a cool art expo we briefly visited. How cool is that?!