Thailand Days 2 & 3
Woke up fairly early Saturday morning...Things are REALLY starting to blur together, so I'm not 100% sure what we did at the start of the day. I remember the boys running out for fresh Congee and eating breakfast at the house. After a while (which was probably time used catching up on emails and internet) we head out to JJ Market. I forget the Thai name for it, but it's a VERY large outdoor market that twists and turns like a giant maze for miles and miles. It's said that you couldn't cover the whole market even if you spent 2 whole days at it.
They have everything here. And I do mean EVERYTHING! There are sections of the market dedicated to different shops. One section is housewares, another is animals (where they sell everything from Puppies to Hedgehogs and squirrels!) or the clothing section or the food sections (there are many of those). Thailand is really interesting. Seeing pictures before you get here you would think it's dirty and smelly and poor-and in some spots it is-but once you're here and you're walking around you realize that not everything is like that. In the market you can have everything from home-made products to high end shopping-I even found an ANNA SUI shop in there! The food is prepared outdoors and by hand, but it's more than worth eating! We had some kind of noodle soup and fried rice at a couple of stalls, and then made our way to another drink stand for handmade Thai Tea and Chocolate milk (I'm addicted to Thai chocolate milk at this point!) Plus, it helps tone down the fires in your mouth better than regular water after eating!
We walked around the shops for HOURS and HOURS before the heat and exercise finally got to us (well, with the way we've been eating I doubt any amount of walking will help :p I need my zumba out here!! Haha) So we started to head back to the car which was across the street from the Fruit Area of JJ market-Fresh fish and fruit for blocks around Thailand! We bought a few mangosteens and some extremely colorful Hairy fruit (I took pictures and will update on facebook at the end of the trip) and we went back to Met's for the evening.
Met had a wedding to go to, so we all ate the fruit and napped a bit in front of the tv. Jonathan and I went to dinner at a chain called HK, which was cheap and DELICIOUS. There was a hot pot for veggies, but we ended up getting braised duck-it was SO GOOD, we just weren't that hungry. Afterwards we walked around the Grocery store in the shopping center we were in. I'm still at awe with how much Japanese food and influence there is in the rest of Asia. It's like being in the middle of Germany and seeing everything labled in British english or something. It's familiar, yet out of place. Granted, it helps me to get around a bit easier than everyone else since I can read food labels when they aren't in Thai! LOL.
Sunday we woke up late (which was a nice change, and our first indication that the jetlag is wearing off!) and milled around some more. There was Pad Se Yu for breakfast (YUMMY!) and then Jonathan and I grabbed a taxi out to the Old city to see the Golden Palace and Wat Prah Kraw.
Beauty does not define it. Gorgeous, unbelievable and breathtaking aren't even enough to describe the sights that we saw. The temple is HUGE beyond comparison and gilded with not just gold, but jewels and paintings from head to toe. The amount of detail in the buildings is staggering. You'll have to wait for the pictures, because it's truly indescribable.
After the temple and palace viewing we went for lunch-I had TomYum noodles, my favorite soup-and then chartered a long boat to take us around the canals where some houses are still built on stilts. It was SO MUCH FUN! Jonathan took a lot of pictures, because my camera battery started to flash that it was dying. We went for an hour around what is considered the Asian Venice. Bangkok used to be built on all kinds of canals and waterways just like in Italy, but most of them have been paved over for roads (which is also one of the reasons the roads here are so unplanned :P) After the boat ride we went back to the house to shower (It's SO HOT and humid here right now! But it's gorgeous-like summer :D) and then went for sushi at an outdoor mall that reminded me of Kierland back home.
It's been a great few days in Thailand! I know I haven't seen everything and there is SO much more to see!! I'm definately going to come back here on another trip. I love it here!