Recess Week part II: Big Hit in Thailand

We said goodbye to Vietnam for the moment and hailed to another South East Asia beauty: Bangkok. As for now I'm still in a speechless and *shaking-my-head* mode of all the amazingly random things there, but let's start on the Pattaya day trip. It was the closest beach to Bangkok so it's a good way of sampling the beauty of Thai beaches. First activity in Pattaya, though, was riding the elephants. Yes, there's an elephant village near the beach. Only in Thailand haha. The beach was quite crowded during the day, and from what I heard Pattaya is actually one of the quite shady spots in Thailand where the tourists love to go. Oh well, beach wasn't quite a big deal but Tiffany's Show definitely was! It was the Broadway for prettiest and most talented lady boys in Thailand. They were such princesses and they'd chase after you after the show to get you take a picture with them (and hence your tip).

So what does a city tour of Bangkok look like? Temples, temples, and more temples. Oh, and the grand palace that looks like a temple too. If you're feeling cheap, look for one of those 3-cents tuk-tuk ride. The driver would tale you to few temples but he got a task for the passengers. Beside taking you to the temples, he would take you to jewelry stores and ask you to pretend to be a potential buyer so that he can get the free gasoline voucher to take you around.

Khao San road is where the wild things are, as featured in the "Hangover 2". Backpacker ghetto full of night market stalls, massage houses, bars, restaurants, lady boys, and other random happenings. Shopping there isn't so great, but street pad thai is cheap and decent. It was raining so we decided to go into the McDonald's, ordered a drink, and eat our pad thai dinner there. All the sudden, a random Vietnamese Australian guy with his friend asked if we were Singaporeans. How have we become such, oh my? Apparently these guys were past NTU exchange students who are just spending months travelling in Southeast Asia at the moment. They have been, let's just say, through a lot of random things. But they knew where the free and hygienic toilet is where they also gave free soda (which happened to be a pub with lady boys as ushers). And they know how to distinguish lady boys from real ladies accurately, which is by asking directly (Ann tried this to a hostel employee before asking about nearby shows but he gave a not-so-pretty face. Woops). No offense to Thai ladies (you're amazing just the way you are), but that got me to question the femininity of the ladies I saw in Thailand thereafter.

Ok so the overall best thing to do in Bangkok, well other than getting Thai massage, is shopping.  Chatuchak market is where you can find everything under the sun, but I prefer the cheap and trendy fashion items. Not satisfied? Head to the outdoor market at Siam Square on the way back but expect slightly higher prices. Still have money to splurge? Go to the 81st floor of Baiyoke Sky, which is the tallest building in Bangkok, and get a nice buffet dinner with the best view of Bangkok just for about US$ 20.