Wanna Be Snobbery: Thailand with Austin

My cousin Austin came to visit over Christmas, and in addition to all the super-fun Singapore stuff (eating, shopping, Night Safari, Chinatown and Little India), we decided to take one last trip of 2010 and head to Thailand! Bangkok was my vote, and Chang Mai was David's, so we compromised and hit them both.

I pretty much had this song in my head this entire trip...

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster

The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free

You'll find a god in every golden cloister

A little flesh, a little history

I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble

Not much between despair and ecstasy

One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble

Can't be too careful with your company

I can feel the devil walking next to me

We had very little time in Bangkok, so after waiting in an endless immigration line (really, I have dreams I'm still there), we found our guide and headed out for some sightseeing straight from the airport. Our first glimpses of Thailand were... uninspiring.

Though I always do love a good tuk-tuk.

First stop? Wat Pho, or Temple of the Reclining Buddha. What was most interesting to me were the temple grounds and all the stuff around him. Like these statues demonstrating the essentials of Thai massage.

The guy being stretched does not look happy.

This Buddha image inside the one of the temples was exquisite. I always wonder why Buddhism teaches so much simplicity, but yet most of their temples are ornate and huge. "We are Buddhist," a different guide had said. "But we are also Asian." Ah, that make sense I suppose, Asians do seem to like to do things bigger and better than everyone else.

We continued to wander, watching our pockets and eyeing all the non-Thai suspiciously.

Finally the Reclining Buddha, who was all gold and huge.

Here's a close-up of his hair:

Outside, more massage diagrams. Apparently they've been teaching the art of thai massage at this temple for hundreds of years. I think. Our guide didn't speak much english so that particular detail was a bit sketchy.

We left just as the sun was starting to set...

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And on to our first night market, the Flower Market, where we saw veritable buffets of roasted insects for snacking.

Other than the bugs and the vegetables, they really do sell mostly flowers here, block and blocks of them. You can get a dozen roses here for about $4. "What about Valentine's Day?" I asked, "More expensive then?" "Oh, yes," our guide replied. "Much expensive. Maybe... ten dollars then?"