Much like the city itself, our stay was bittersweet in almost all aspects.
One of the first activities we did in Bangkok was visit the Siam Aquarium. Described as “the biggest aquarium in Southeast Asia,” the Siam is in the heart of one of Bangkok’s commercial areas, located in the basement of an ultra-modern shopping mall. I originally wanted to go because it advertised activities such as scuba diving with and feeding the sharks, but upon arrival we saw that these activities cost around 200$ US, so I settled for an amazing glass-bottom boat ride instead:
If you couldn’t sit through that entire video without pressing pause, imagine how I felt for the duration of the ride. All four minutes of it. In the end, I wasn’t sure if I should be happy because it was over or upset because I waited in line 45 minutes to do the damn thing! Julie warned me against it, telling me it would be boring, but I thought it was just her lack of enthusiasm for tourist attractions that was kicking in.
The aquarium did have other, more interesting things to offer. The fish were beautiful and there was a vast collection of species I had never seen before, and I even got a natural pedicure from tiny fish that feed off of dead skin!
The experience was a mixture of gross, fun, and embarrassing. Embarrassing because when I put my feet in the water almost every fish in the tub came towards me, leaving other tourists nibble-less. Could it be because I’m a waitress and spend all day on my feet so I have more dead skin? Regardless, it made me feel awkward so I shook off the fish and let the others get a bite.
We also went shopping at night in the street markets. At first I thought it was kind of fun because I was negotiating and getting things for pretty cheap, but later I realized that I had mistaken bills of 1000 Baht for bills of 100 Baht, a difference of about 30$ US.
No one gave me change. So much for bargains!
One of the first activities we did in Bangkok was visit the Siam Aquarium. Described as “the biggest aquarium in Southeast Asia,” the Siam is in the heart of one of Bangkok’s commercial areas, located in the basement of an ultra-modern shopping mall. I originally wanted to go because it advertised activities such as scuba diving with and feeding the sharks, but upon arrival we saw that these activities cost around 200$ US, so I settled for an amazing glass-bottom boat ride instead:
If you couldn’t sit through that entire video without pressing pause, imagine how I felt for the duration of the ride. All four minutes of it. In the end, I wasn’t sure if I should be happy because it was over or upset because I waited in line 45 minutes to do the damn thing! Julie warned me against it, telling me it would be boring, but I thought it was just her lack of enthusiasm for tourist attractions that was kicking in.
The aquarium did have other, more interesting things to offer. The fish were beautiful and there was a vast collection of species I had never seen before, and I even got a natural pedicure from tiny fish that feed off of dead skin!
The experience was a mixture of gross, fun, and embarrassing. Embarrassing because when I put my feet in the water almost every fish in the tub came towards me, leaving other tourists nibble-less. Could it be because I’m a waitress and spend all day on my feet so I have more dead skin? Regardless, it made me feel awkward so I shook off the fish and let the others get a bite.
We also went shopping at night in the street markets. At first I thought it was kind of fun because I was negotiating and getting things for pretty cheap, but later I realized that I had mistaken bills of 1000 Baht for bills of 100 Baht, a difference of about 30$ US.
No one gave me change. So much for bargains!
FOOD
I’m sure none of you will be surprised that on my first day spent in Bangkok I went on a sushi rampage. I had sushi for lunch, sushi for dinner, I took sushi home, I had sushi for breakfast, I was pretty much sushi crazy. The next day, however, I opted to eat food that was more authentic Thai:
Actually, we went to McDonald’s because our hotel kicked us out at noon and our train to Laos didn’t leave until 6 p.m. at night. With hundreds of pounds in baggage, we didn’t have the courage to walk around the city again. We chose the closest place with air conditioning that wouldn’t kick us out if we stayed there from 12-5p.m. So we spent most of the afternoon doing pretty much this:
With exactly that face.
When things got excessively boring I decided to entertain Julie by preparing my audition tape for the next casting of Glee. Feel free to marvel at my as-of-yet undiscovered raw talent:
So that was super fun and exciting for the entire 30 seconds it lasted.
Then it was more waiting…
Which continued at the train station. The station was packed with people sitting on the floor, some of them young backpackers, many of them Lao people returning home from a visit to the city.
So it was a very long day of waiting. But in the end it was worth it because it got us closer to Laos!
I think that those little fishes just thought that your dead skin tasted better than everyone elses!
ReplyDeleteThey must know healthy dead skin when they smell / see it :)
P.S. Love your Glee audition...if they sign you then I will start watching the show!
Synchronicity at work! Tara and Kayla took us to you favorite Sushi place on Crescent Avenue at about the same time as you were feasting yourself sick.
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