After 46 hours of traveling, almost missing a flight, getting lost in the LAX airport, and waiting forever to get our bags, we finally arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. I was super excited to be there and be reunited with my Winterline friends. It’s so nice to be back traveling too. The 6-week break was too long. I was ready for a week full of tuk tuks, street food, temples, monks, and Thai massage.
In Bangkok, we stayed at a nice hostel right in front of Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining Buddha. The first day there we went on an amazing tour around the city with Bangkok Vanguards. We saw so much: A Buddhist temple, an Indian temple, China Town, Little India, the back alleys, malls, and markets. I took a tuk tuk for the first time and we also took water taxis. We boated through the canals and ate lunch at a local Thai family’s house that prepared food for us. I really liked that, eating Thai food at a local’s house. We met the family and the tour guides explained a little about how they live. We ate street food and went to various markets. We finished the tour at a rooftop restaurant bar called Cloud 46 which was very beautiful. You could see all the lights of the buildings and the city. It was a lot of fun. After that some of us decided to go to the Unicorn Café. Yes, a unicorn café. The place was full with unicorns and everything was pink and purple. Even the food was colored. We didn’t get anything, we just wanted to go there and see it.
At the end of our stay we got certified with Thai massage. We spend 5 days taking classes at the Wat Pho Medical School. It was some interesting 5 days. Giving Thai massages was so tiring. They lasted around one hour and we gave so many. The days of Thai massage felt like they wouldn’t end. It was nice getting them, but they sometimes hurt or tickled. So it wasn’t super relaxing all the time. But the school was very nice. The teachers were very good and they were so nice and funny. They would laugh at our mistakes and helped us with whatever we needed. They took us to the temple one day and we got to see the reclining Buddha. I’m glad I got the experience of learning Thai massage but I don’t really want to give another one (maybe to my parents if they really want one).
In the middle of the week we took a break from Thai massage and went to Bai Pai cooking school. We made a coconut sticky rice with mango, chicken in pandanus leaves, papaya salad, and red curry with pork and bamboo. It was so fun, the place was very pretty and the teachers were super nice. I don’t really like cooking but I enjoyed the class there. We got to eat the food we cooked afterwards. It was delicious.
One night we went on a bike tour which was super fun. We cycled through the back allies of Bangkok and through busy roads with cars passing by us, we got a boat taxi across a river, we ate street food for dinner, we cycled through a local market, and ended the tour at a rooftop restaurant where we had desert. It was one of my highlights from the trip. I enjoyed it a lot. Another night we went to watch a Muay thai boxing match. It was very cool. We were sitting at the ring side very close. We also went to eat dinner at a place called Mad Moa and I ate the best burger in my life. It was so good.
Next stop: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
