Bangkok and The Boys

We were about to double our numbers for a week! Two gentlemen decided that going to Thailand to join our misadventures would be way better than watching TV. Let me introduce our fellow travel mates for the week: Eric, Steffany's boyfriend, and Bryan, our dear pal!

After a mad dash out of Ko Tao, we arrived in Bangkok at 1:00 AM. Nothing is better than arriving in a new large city, in the middle of the night, with all of our belongings strapped to our back, having no idea where we were, or how to get to where we were going. Fun.

The next morning, we started our desperate housewives day. We checked into the fancy hotel the boys were treating us to. Dropped off our laundry that we haven't washed since Indonesia. We both had to wear our sarongs as dresses since we had no other clothes. Steff took a nap back at the hotel, and I went shopping at the street market. After I got back Steff and I watched really horrible TV for awhile - The Biggest Loser Asia, a random Thai soap opera (that we made up the plot for), and low budget 15 minute short films on the Hallmark channel. We left to go get our laundry and get facials. If getting Pizza Hut for dinner is wrong, then I don't want to be right. We continued to spoil ourselves with a hot water shower. Prettied up, for once, and waited for the boys to arrive while falling asleep. I told you this was our housewife day.

Eric and Bryan called us from the lobby when they arrived. I desperately tried to keep up with Steff as she sprinted down the hall so she could tackle Eric with the biggest hug ever (she was very happy to see him). The boys hadn't slept for 24 hours, so we decided to all catch up in the morning, and went to our seperate rooms. Bryan and I chit chatted for a bit, and he gave me the best present in the world. Life cereal. What's better than one bag of life cereal? TWO bags of life cereal!!! Joy.

The next day Bryan and I went for a morning run, and Eric some how was able to get Steff out of bed before 9:00 AM. We all met up for breakfast at the hotel. I knew that the room came with breakfast, which usually means a piece of toast, but I didn't expect to eat like a queen every morning. Pancake, eggs, bacon, toast, coffee, juice, and fruit. Normally I don't like such a large breakfast, but they put free food in front of me so not eating it wasn't an option.

We had a nice walk past the fort and the river on our way to a market. Sadly, the market was closed that day, so we actually had a nice walk to an empty parking lot, with confusing signs that had something to do with pigeons. We still don't know if we weren't supposed to touch them, feed them, look at them, or befriend them. What's with Bangkok hating it's pigeon population? Take a cue from New York, embrace your grunginess.

The pigeon hating parking lot was right next to he palace, so we thought we could go there next. Before we were even three blocks within the palace area, tuk-tuk drivers started yelling that we were wearing the wrong clothes. The palace takes it's dress code of closed toed shoes, long pants, and sleeved shirts very... very... seriously. It turned out the palace wasn't even open at the time, but it's a weird feeling to have tuk-tuk drivers judging your outfit all the way down the street.

Since we couldn't go into the palace, we took pictures of the wall outside of the palace on our way to Wat Pho. Wat Pho was not only beautiful, but also one of our favorite temples that we had visited. How can you not love a gigantic reclining bronze Buddha with sparkley feet? The temple also gave Steff and I a chance to tap into our OCD nature. Hang a left by the Buddha feet, and you can pick up a cup of small coins. Place a coin in every one of the 100 metal containers (I don't know if there were 100, but it was a lot) that lined the inside of the temple and you would be granted good luck, or happiness, or something of a positive nature. It was so neat putting the coins in their little homes and hearing the jingle of coins dropping in all around. Steff and I thought this was fantastic, the boys seemed more amused by us finding this activity "fun" and "exciting."

We sat under a tree while Bryan and Eric enjoyed their new favorite drink - coconut juice still in the coconut. It was a hard choice to go some where indoors to get out of he blazing heat (no it wasn't), but we took a taxi up to Siam Center, Bangkok's large mall. We were convinced the mall only had over priced sit-down restaurants, until we stumbled upon the Mecca of all food courts. Siam Center arranges each floor by type of store, so all the food in the mall was on this floor. I think all the food on Earth might have been on this floor. We spent 30 minutes wandering around looking at all the crazy food (example: pizza in a cup... I'm serious) until we met up in the center.

"What are you going to get?"

All of us: "I have no idea..."

So we all got a little bit of everything. Super fun lunch of sharing food and being far too entertained by the fish in the giant fish tanks. We were convinced they were mocking us and plotting their escape!

We walked around, until we saw a sign for the "Hall of Mirrors." Being the mature grown-ups that we are, we thought this was a fun house mirror maze... in the middle of a mall... on the designer jewelry floor...It was actually the title of an art show. It wasn't a wacky maze, but it was a really cool show. The artist had a series of oil paintings with humans interacting with animals, mythical creatures, and skeletons in different fantasy landscapes.

Me and Steff: "Um.. Can we live in her world?"

You wouldn't expect this from four New Yorkers, but next we took the sky train and subway - for fun. We arrived in China Town, and made our way through a sea of stalls, selling everything you can imagine, on our way to Little India. You could spend a week exploring all the small ally ways packed with people, carts, and a few brave (stupid) people on motor bikes. Only complaint... huge selections of fabric and beads. It's a complaint because we're on a budget with limited space in our packs. Seeing all the craft supplies was just a tease.

We decided to go back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. This turned into Eric and Steff swimming for 2 minutes, and me and Bryan falling asleep. I fell asleep next to my life cereal - couldn't have been happier.

We had dinner at a tasty Thai vegetarian buffet. They even had Thai dancers to perform during dinner. The performers invited us up to learn the dance, Steff jumped up, and this time I was the scaredy cat. I'll risk my life climbing over sharp rocks, but there was no way I was going to get up and dance. Steff was great though - she's one of those people with grace and rhythm - amazing!

The second day of our Bangkok adventure started much the same, with a team Megan and Bryan run, then making up for the lost calories with a gigantic breakfast. We strolled through the amulet market on our way to the palace (take two). We were totally prepared for the palace's strict dress code - Pants, closed shoes, shoulders covered! Eric, Steff, and Bryan walked through and I was... denied. Apparently, having a scarf covering my shoulders wasn't good enough. They sent me back to the gate to borrow a free shirt to wear. I followed a line of irritated girls wearing tank tops with scarves, to get my gigantic tan button up shirt. I was now safari Megan!

The palace was incredible. Luckily, Bryan is a great photographer, with a great camera. We plan on stealing all of the pictures he took to make up for our less than stellar photography skills. The buildings that towered around us looked like they were made of glittery gold. Yes 6-year-old girls, there are palaces made of gold in summer time paradises - dream big. Every detail was beautiful and a photo opportunity. You can all look forward to 200 pictures of close ups of a pretty sparkely corners of various buildings.

While we were in Bangkok the "red shirt" protests were going on. We were warned not to wear red shirts, so we wouldn't get accidentally swept up in all the madness. The madness turned out to be hundreds of people wearing red t-shirts, serving street food, and calmly talking about democracy. It was pretty much a festive democracy carnival. We walked through the protest eating Eric's coconut ice cream, on our way to the democracy monument, which was very neat. Yay freedom, democracy, and all that.

Bangkok, you were a dear, but we had enough of this city business. We walked through the democracy carnival, and hopped the next bus to Ayutthaya.

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