.::* Living and Dreaming *::.

Thailand, Bangkok and Tiger Temple: June 11-14

Bangkok: We found Asha Guesthouse on the internet and it turned out to be a decent place with nice surroundings. The only drawback was that it was in an inconvenient location. Despite that, we still stayed at Asha’s for all three days that we were in Bangkok.

On the day that we arrived, we saw everyone wearing yellow shirts in honour of the king’s 80th birthday so on our way to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar we picked up some for ourselves. Somehow, the moment that we put on the shirts we instantly felt happier. Maybe because our shirts were bright yellow or maybe it was because we fit in so well.

Some of the sightseeing things we did: Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha, Reclining Buddha, Dusit Palace (because we got free tickets from our Grand Palace tickets), Wat Arun Wararam and Chinatown. And of course, people tried to con us. Outside the Grand Palace, someone tried to tell us that it was closed and that he could get a tuk tuk for us to take us to the “Lucky Buddha” which, lucky for us, is open only once a month and that day happened to be that day. We stuck with our plan and then as we were walking into the Grand Palace, we saw a sign that warned us not to listen to strangers who talk about the “Lucky Buddha” and that the Palace was open everyday. Another time, we tried to take a tuk tuk to the train station so that we could buy tickets to Chiang Mai but the driver took us to a travel agent even though we kept arguing that we wanted to go to the train station. We ended up getting off and walking the rest of the way.

A friend told Liz and I about how in the movie theatres in Thailand you have to stand for the king’s anthem. Out of curiosity, we went to watch Shrek 3 and as a treat we got popcorn and some Bacardi Breezers. We wanted to try the first class tickets but opted for the regular priced tickets. Apparently though, you get to go into a VIP room before the movie and you get unlimited popcorn and drinks.


Tiger Temple: One of the things that I really wanted to do during our trip was to visit the tiger temple and pet some tigers. My aunt had a picture with one when she was younger and I always wanted to do the same since I was a kid. Who thought I’d actually get the chance to! We took a bus to Kanchanaburi and then we got on another bus to get closer to the temple. From the main road, it was about a 15 minute walk on a dirt road. Once you get to the place where the tigers are, there are lots of staff that will take your camera and your hand and walk you to each of the tigers so that you can take pictures with them. You can take as many pictures as you want. You can also get a picture with the tiger’s head in your lap but you have to pay a little bit of money and wait until the tiger falls asleep. If you stay till around 4:30pm, you can watch the tiger feeding but we left before that time. I think the tigers are vegetarian too.
Back in Kanchanaburi, we also visited the Bridge over the River Kwai. There’s a whole history behind this bridge and how the Japanese used prisoners of war to build it. Google it for the whole story because I’m not even sure myself.

posted by ~diana~ @ 3:42 AM