Day 1
The day we
had all awaited for had finally arrived, the day that we would fly from Seattle
to Tokyo to Bangkok! A total of a 21-hour
journey, with the addition of crossing over the International Date Line and
totally skipping a day! Both legs of the
journey we travelled on the huge 777’s and were provided with meals (vegetable
curry for lunch and a cheese ravioli dish for breakfast). The food didn’t seem terrible at the time, but
the time that Anna, Cammie and I got to Tokyo our stomachs were all a little
messed up.
The first
flight was 10 hours, but I didn’t get much sleep. Watched a few movies, read a little, but by
the time we arrived in Tokyo I was exhausted!
Since there was a 3-hour layover we got to walk around the mall and stop
by some cultural tourist souvenir shops.
It was very different getting to see all of the unique delicacies that
were being sold in the shops. I ended up
getting some jelly, while Anna got a green tea mini pancake.
The last
leg of the journey wasn’t all too bad, I sat next to a nice woman who was an IB
music teacher at a school in Indiana, so we got to have a nice chat. Unfortunately I didn’t sleep a wink during
the second flight. However, when we got
to Bangkok and walked outside of the airport there was an immense wave of heat
and humidity and pollution. The heat and
humidity didn’t surprise me, but the sheer amount of pollution and stench of sweat
was overwhelming. Even simply driving
through the streets of Bangkok at night was a new and eye opening
experience. I noticed the mass of
telephone wires hanging exposed at every street corner, and venders still
selling their food late at night (we arrived at 1am). Upon arriving at the hotel we immediately
checked in passed out! 
Day 2
Today was
AMAZING!!!! One of the best experiences of my life occurred today, not only did
I get to ride in a tuk tuk and have the most delicious pad Thai, but I also got
to ride and bathe an Asian elephant!! The 4-hour journey there and 4-hour
journey back from Kanchanaburi (I believe that’s the name). Its pretty close to the Thailand, Burma
borders.
The hotel
breakfast at the Imm Fusion was really unique, not only did they have cereal,
juices and pastries (like a US breakfast) but there was rice, cabbage, vegetables and a chicken/rice porridge… Very
different breakfast choices. Eight of us
took a taxi to the bus station in Ekkamai, then took a 2.5 hour bus ride to
Kanchanaburi. Once there, a tuk tuk
driver took us to an elephant-riding excursion.
On the way there we were all really hungry, so our driver stopped at a
gas station where there was a pad Thai vendor, The food was phenomenal! After lunch we returned back to the road and
got to the elephant riding place. It was
really sketchy looking and run by a Thai family. For 600 Baht we were able to ride and bathe
the elephants (bareback) for 30 minutes.
What a GREAT experience. My
elephant was a baby and kept diving underwater with me on it! 
After the
elephant riding, we stopped by a bridge over the River Kwai which was
awesome. We ended up getting back to the
hotel fairly late after riding a tuk tuk, bus and monorail back. Finally we went to dinner at a night
market, I got green curry and it was
extremely spicy! What a great first
official day in Bangkok Thailand!
Day 3
A day of
visiting temples and having to be fully covered, practically from head to toe
in 90 degree weather, fantastic! Today,
as a group of 34 we visited the Golden Buddha temple in Chinatown, Wat Arun
(spectacular detail and decorated with porcelain), Wat pho (which held the
GIANT reclining Buddha) and finally we went to the Grand Palace, which was
phenomenal, everything was so intricately designed with gold and bright colors,
and we went inside the temple to see the emerald Buddha (breathtaking).
For meals
today we had a buffet on a boat for lunch, which was great because we were all
literally starving and grumpy. And, for
dinner we went to a thai culture show and was served a plate of rice with 5
different small dishes to mix with the rice.
One of the dishes was disgusting though, it was a mixture of pineapples,
pickles and vegetables (too many different tastes in one bite).
It was
awesome getting to learn more about the history and culture/region of Thailand!
Day 4
With a
group of 10 we went to the anatomy, parasitology and abnormalities museum. Saw some horrific pictures of deaths and
suicides, saw so many frozen babies and conjoined twins who died at birth, It was absolutely amazing for a biology
student to see. Then all of us went to a
really old street market in Bangkok to do some shopping.. I got an elephant poster, a par of elephant
pants, and a bag.
For dinner
as a group we went on q Dinner Cruise at Chao Praya River by Grand Pearl Cruise. The food was okay, in my opinion nothing
special, not many vegetarian options, but the boat was fantastic. It had elevators inside, 2 stages for
singing, giant televisions and much more, amazing! Calpoly was definitely well represented as
our group was the life of the party and danced to all of the songs (:
Day 5
We decided
to go bicycling around the green lung (a natural, forest like community right
outside of Bangkok). 9 of us were
supposed to go, but unfortunately we got separated 4 and 4 because taxis can
only hold 4 people. I was in the bad
taxi, where the driver had no clue where he was going! We ended up in Khlong Toei, but not the area
that we needed to be in. However it was
still an adventure since we got to see a live animal market and people selling
live or dead fish and frogs and bugs, We
even saw chickens being slaughtered. 
Finally
after 2 hours of being totally lost in Bangkok and having a sketch ride with 5
of us in a 2 person tuk tuk, we arrived at Wat Khlong Toi Nok and were able to
travel across the river by a little boat and got to go riding in the green
lung,. It was actually pretty cheap.
Only 120 baht for a round trip and renting bikes for a day! The coolest part of riding our bikes was
getting lost and riding around a community on a 1 foot wide platform that
connected all of the houses. One wrong
move and you would fall off into the water!
Another highlight was seeing a snake fall from a tree super close to
where I was standing and seeing the immense amount of wild dogs in the
area. We stopped for pad thai then got
back to the hotel and swam before we headed out to the train station.
The train
we were taking was from Bangkok to Chiang Mai!
My first night train ever. 14
hours of journeying, I chatted to some
people from our group and made a new friend called Yvette, who is from
Holland. Anyway, it was a full packed
day!
