Bangkok, Thailand

When we got to Bangkok we had to wander around for awhile looking for a hotel that was 1. not disgusting and 2. not expensive.

We found our hotel on the 3rd try. It wasn't amazing, but it suited our purposes and we had showers in our rooms, which was really important. I shared a room with Erik because Kristen's friend, Natasha, was joining us soon.

I couldn't believe the amount of shopping on Khao San Road alone. (This is the road that most tourists go to... its famous.)


(Khao San road)


(Cool alleyway off Khao San road)


(Erik saying "THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!!)


(Kristen and I saying "MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THAILAND!!"


(tons of shoelaces!)

Everything was way cheap and awesome, but unfortunately I don't have all the money in the world like I wish I did.

The morning after we got to Bangkok (Christmas morning) we rented a Tuk Tuk to drive us around all day to various touristy spots. We saw way too many temples. There's only so much temple seeing that I can take in one day. Erik was still drunk from the night before. Such an idiot. I don't think its smart to do that, but what can I say?? I'm not his mother or his girlfriend, so in the end... I don't really care what he does.

Our Tuk Tuk driver kept taking us to random places (which we expected to happen... which is why it was so cheap). He took us to places like some jewelry store... and we just had to walk around and he got a coupon for gas... SO, we did. We are such nice people.


(Some Tuk Tuk's)


(along the road in Bangkok)


(From out the back of our Tuk Tuk... looking at ANOTHER Tuk Tuk)


(The taxi's are pink!! cool)


(Me, Kristen and Erik in our Tuk Tuk)

Then he took us to a travel agent type place. We booked a tour for the next day to see the floating market as well as some tigers. These were two things I really wanted to do.


(Buddha we saw in the morning)


(Erik carrying his beer in the temple... probably disrespectful)


(good job Erik)


(Me and Kristen)


(Taking a picture of this was probably disrespectful... oh well)


(Kristen taking some pics...)


(super gross rat)


Then we went to the Grand Palace which is where the King lives and where he 'performs his Kingly duties'. This place was MASSIVE. AND, you had to be dressed a certain way. i was wearing pants but a tank top, so I had to put on a Hawaiian print shirt that I would never wear on a normal day. Lucky for me, I was wearing pants. Kristen was wearing shorts and a tank, so she had to wear a long print skirt and a yellow Hawaiian print shirt. It was mismatching hell. I laughed quite hard about it. BUT, once again... it provided for an interesting story.


(Grand Palace)


(Kristen in her cool new outfit)


(you can see my super cool shirt)




(Inside the temple somewhere)
















(HI!!!)

We wandered around for quite some time (considering the size of the place was absolutely massive), took a ton of pictures, including some funny ones with the guards that aren't allowed to move or show emotion. (Those are on Kristen's camera, so they will have to wait for a later date, considering she is on her way to Canada as we speak).

They had plumeria trees there, which are my favorite flower (everyone should know this)




(LOOK AT MY CUTE CAMERA CASE WITH THE ELEPHANT!!)



After this we went back to Khao San Road and wandered around and shopped for awhile. I bought a really cool colorful dress which I wore the next day.


(I'm not sure what they were doing, but they were wearing traditional Thai dresses)

Thailand Pt. 4-- Koh Chang

The rest of the time on the island, we spent relaxing and doing really random things.

I found out that the majority of the people that come to Thailand are from Sweden. So there were a TON of Swedish people around. People kept asking me if I was Swedish. So weird.

Then some guy asked me if I was Indian, like as in from India. What about me screams "I'M FROM INDIA!!!"???

It certainly isn't the tan... or the oh-so-natural brown hair...

Ridiculous. I think he just wanted to talk to me. Not the best pick up line.

I went with Erik to get a massage. I've only ever gotten a massage once in my life and it was weird. MOSTLY because I don't like to be touched by strangers. Call me a prude, but I like for people to keep their hands to themselves unless otherwise notified.

It was a nice massage on the beach. You could hear the waves and the slight breeze. Except... Thai massages are uber painful. LITTLE DID I KNOW!! I thought I was going to stop breathing forever at a few points. Note to self... stick to the swedish massages, less pain.

Erik and I went to this bar on the beach so he could have a beer and I could have a strawberry smoothie. What can I say... I'd rather have a good smoothie than alcohol, any day.


(Kristen and Erik playing Connect Four at lunch)

A couple nights we went up north to the white sands area and hung out there. One of the nights we saw a really rad fire show... I gots it on video :)




(This guy had a rockin' cart... literally. He put on a good show)


(handmade soap. so pretty)

(Looking at my arms right now, I think I accidently got a tan. I didn't spend a lot of time in the sun doing NOTHING. I hate laying out, complete waste of time... But, I do tend to tan when I come in contact with sunlight. YAY!)

On our last day on Koh Chang we rented scooters (everyone and their mother rides scooters around the island). We then rode them to this area where you could hike to a waterfall.





The waterfall was beautiful! AND, you could swim in the water at the bottom of it. It was too hard to resist. So I went swimming in my underwear. If I had KNOWN, I would have worn my swimsuit. OH WELL! It was quite refreshing and we all jumped off the little cliff into the water. So awesome.









When we were done with that we rode our scooters around for awhile cause they were way too much fun to return too early.




(Kristen and I on the beach)


(On the swing again)



Then we got into our hired car and drove back to Bangkok for the final few days of our trip.

Thailand Pt Tres-- Elephant Poop

The 2nd day of our Thailand trip (No, I won't be doing each day as a blog... why? because I'm lazy, its quite simple. I'm trying to keep them short because of the over abundance of photos I'm going to be putting on them as soon as they upload to photobucket. Thanks for being nosy)

Anyway, we decided we really wanted to ride elephants. This was one of the few things we said we HAD to do while in Thailand. So we booked a 2 hour tour which included swimming with the elephants. Kristen and I rode on one elephant while Erik rode on another. They were so cute.




(Erik and his elephant)

The ride was like slow motion whip-lash though... those elephants don't walk very smooth.

AND, Erik's elephant had a purple butt, so gross.


(Erik and his purple butted elephant)


(Kristen and I on our elephant)


(Elephants stopping for a bit of a snack)

We eventually got to the swimming part where we went into the nearby river.... The guy that was guiding our elephant got sick pleasure out of us freaking out cause the water was cold. Then he had the elephant lay down or kneel so we constantly thought we were going to fall off. Not that it mattered cause we were in the water, but still... its the principal of it all.

Then I look over and Erik's elephant is relieving itself in the water. Pieces of poop that were bigger than my dog, Comet and probably weighed more started floating to the surface. Then our elephant decides that this looks like a good idea and he should join in the fun with purple butt. So now we are literally surrounded by elephant crap. It came within like a foot of me and that was enough for me. I'll never be able to wash that gross feeling off. Haha.

We didn't get any pictures of us in the water because we were all too busy trying to avoid elephant poop to take any. They certainly would have been funny.

When we got back to the main area, we had fresh pineapple which was great and took some pictures of the only elephant with tusks...