Rainy Bangkok from a Tuk-Tuk

Ko Samui

Ko Tao

Ayutthaya

Day trip around Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai II

Thai Cooking Class

Chiang Mai

Last day in Bangkok

We spent our last day in the city visiting the areas we had missed and taking the express boat to go visit Wat Arun, the enormous Temple of Dawn that has been there since the Ayutthaya period (XIV-XV centuries).
We didn't get to see Thonburi or Dusit, but we had pretty much visited the other areas of the city. Banglamphu (where we were staying), Ratanakosin (where most landmarks are located), Pahurat (the indian area) and Chinatown, Thanon Silom (the weird Red District of Bangkok where you can see the famous "ping-pong" shows) and finally downtown Bangkok which is the most Americanized area with huge shopping malls and Starbucks on every corner.

Damnoen Saduak

It takes a 2 hour bus ride to get to Nakhon Pathom from Bangkok. Once there you can get any local with a boat to take you to the floating market of Damnoen Saduak.
We were really excited about this trip, however it turned to be highly disappointing to see how it's just a tourist attraction and there's no much of the original flair any more. See on the last picture how a terrible bazaar has been built around the floating market selling all kinds of cheesy souvenirs for the hundreds of tourists that visit the spot daily.

More Bangkok

Our next visit was to Wat Phra Kaeo, the apogee of Thai religious art and the holiest Buddhist site in the country, housing the most important image, the Emerald Buddha. Built as the private royal temple, Wat Phra Kaeo occupies the northeast coner of the huge Grand Palace, whose official openign in 1785 marked the founding of the new capital and the rebirth of the Thai nation after the Burmese invasion.
The surprise of the day was to see the shooting of a Bollywood movie in one of the gardens.

In one of the temples we got to try our luck with one sacred game consisting in throwing one stick out of bowl with 25 or so. All of them were numbered and the number you got determined your luck and you could read it in a little paper. My luck turned out to be pretty good, but one of my friends got a really bad one and when the little man guarding the temple saw it, he wouldn't let her leave without a bunch of activities to try to show respect to the Buddha and get redeemed.
Walking by another temple, that same afternoon, we saw this cheesy machines that had the same function than the sticks and the old man. Pretty weird.

Bangkok

It was my first time in Asia.
Bangkok turned out to be more occidental than I had expected it. A big city. Chaotic but organized. Highly polluted but with a lot of charm. The city is crossed by the Chao Phraya River and all the main monuments are located near the water on the main curve of the river.

We, as most backpackers, stayed in the area of Banglamphu that turned out to be some kind of traveller's ghetto. It's main street Khao San it's a huge bazaar where you can get from cheap clothes and thai massages to all kinds of fake documents, burn CDs and fake watches.
Our first visit was Wat Po, the oldest temple in Bangkok and older than the city itself, taht was founded in the XVII century. It's a complex that covers 20 acres and it's considered one of the best universities of the country. It's an important center for traditional medicine and thai massage (we got here our first one!). Apart from that, it's interesting to see the chapel of the Reclining Buddha a 45 meter-long gilded statue of plaster covered brick that depicts the Buddha entering Nirvana.

Vacaciones !!

I am going to be gone for 3 weeks. I will be in Thailand!!!
I leave this open so you can add all the comments and ideas that I will not have those weeks.

One year

It has been a year. Feels weird. One year of blogging. It has been fun. The website needs multiple updates, coming soon.
Thanks for reading. (well... I hope someone is reading.)