First things first, some important updates: 1) I'm alive, 2) I'm back in California, 3) I saw "The Incredible Hulk" on the plane ride over and I liked it a lot.
Sitting at home in my old room makes it seem as if Cambodia and Thailand are lifetimes away. However, I shall recall the trip for I think there are some interesting things to talk about and I have pictures now to show = ).
Bangkok
Being an international metropolitan city, Bangkok has many of the comforts of home as well as much of the local flair.
Here's a big mall called MBK that Trish and I explored (but didn't buy anything since everything was so expensive):
MBK Shopping Center
The Grand Palace. Pictured here is a golden chedi (the golden cone shape building that is said to house a Buddha relic) and some other buildings located on the grounds of the Grand Palace. Prior to entry, they made me wear cotton pants because I was wearing shorts (it's considered disrespectful to wear shorts and other revealing clothing on royal grounds). I remember the ticket price to get inside was really steep, approx. 300-350 Baht which amounts to 10 USD. Other tourist areas did not cost nearly as much to enter. Also, the ticket price is only for foreigners, Thai people can get in for free. My girlfriend made the remark, "James you should try to pass as a Thai, you're dark enough." I thought about it, but then I also thought about Thailand prisons and decided against it.
46 meter long. Golden Buddha Reclining as he slips into Nirvana. I don't know if that's the official title, but it's a description of what Buddha's doing. If you look towards his feet, you can make out very small images of people. This Buddha is extremely big and exquisite. It is mind boggling to imagine the amount of work and craftsmanship it would take just to carve the head of this Buddha not to mention the body and mother in pearl inlaid feet.
S0 Bangkok is great place to see not only great Thai art and sculpture, but also, if you're interested, the sights and sounds of a huge city. However, like all foreigners do, I have to complain about the traffic. It's terrible, there's traffic jams everywhere especially during rush hour. Also, I felt that the hecticness of the city was getting to be a bit tiring.
Speaking of tiring, I took a two hour class at a Muay Thai boxing gym near my hostel. That was really fun and it cost 500 Baht http://www.jittigym.com/
On hostels in Bangkok: We stayed at New Siam, this hostel is one of three of the same name, this one is next to Rambrutti road and is just ok. The location is good but don't stay in the room next to the kitchen, which we did, there's a cockroach problem. Bella Bella is a cheaper hostel that we stayed at when we missed our Phuket flight. Bella Bella I found nicer, but much noisier. They don't take reservations, you just walk in.
Chiang Mai for me was much more relaxing and less commercial than Bangkok. The customer service in Bangkok when it came to boarding or meals was much more impersonal than in Chiang Mai which is understandable because Bangkok gets so many foreigner customers that the workers can't help but be jaded.
Anyways, my final verdict for Bangkok is that it's a must see, however, I wouldn't want to spend more than a week here (we spent 6 days here, 9/18-9/24).
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