Fighting, Buddhas, Waterfalls, and Shopping in THAILAND!

This past weekend we left India for the fist time and traveled to Bangkok, Thailand. It was so amazing to travel farther east in Asia. We have become so accustomed to the language, the people and the conditions of India that being in Thailand was sooo different. It was way more modernized and developed than I had expected. Listening to people speaking Thai is awesome. It is so different and has so many different tones than English and even Hindi. It was nice not to be hasseled for money and stared at everywhere we went. And we ate USDA approved beef!!! Ok so the steak was not as good as I had hoped it would be, but it was nice to eat beef for the first time in 2 1/2 months.
So again it was the Dans and I. We flew into Bangkok on Saturday morning, got a little bit more sleep at our hotel, ate at the Chinese restaurant in our hotel and then went out to the weekend market. Our hotel was very nice and our room overlooked the river. The market was really fun. It was basically like a maze of stalls. We walked around on the outskirts and then entered into the narrow corridors lined with shops. The shopping was great and so different than what we can find here in India. Thai silk is fabulous!
After shopping for a while we set off to experience Muay Thai fighting. I have to admit that I had some reservations about seeing a fight, but the guys really wanted to go so I went along with it. I gotta say I am glad I did. It was really interesting. It is an ancient form of fighting unique to Thailand, for those of you who played Street Fighter think Sagat. It involves a lot of knees to the gut and kicks to the head. Before the fight the fighters do a spiritual "warm up routine." They kind of dance around the ring and pray while musicians play traditional Thai music. We saw 5 or 6 fights and 2 of them were knock outs. The first knock out I saw I about cried, but by the end of the night I was really into it. If you check out the pics, you will see why I had a hard time dealing with the knock outs, these guys look like they are about 14. The picture of Dan Vital and I with the teeny tiny Thai guy was my favorite fighter of the night. He looked way bigger in the ring than he did standing next to us. I couldn't believe how small he actually was, but he could knock any of us out with one blow. All in all the Muay Thai experience was really interesting and fun. After Muay Thai we hit up the night market and shopped some more.
The next morning we drove to Phra Pathom Chedi, Erawan National Park, and Kanchanaburi. Phra Pathom Chedi is the world's tallest Buddhist monument. It was a large monument with lots of statues of Buddha all around it. In one of the buildings on the complex there was a huge golden Buddha laying on its side. Check out the pics. From here we went on to Erawan National Park to check out Erawan waterfall.
Erawan waterfall is a 7 tiered waterfall with the most beautiful blue water I have ever seen. You start at the bottom, hike up to the top and you can swim in any of the pools along the way. The Dans and I hiked up to the top and then on the way down swam at one of the pools. It was sooooo amazing. The waterfalls were really fun and the hike was up a mountain covered with jungle. It was so hot, but what a cool experience! The hike towards the top of the waterfall was pretty difficult and there were times when we were actually climbing up the waterfall. It was a lot of fun and so rewarding when we got to the top and then climbed back down to swim in the prettiest pool. Sorry there are no pictures of where we swam, the camera ran out of batteries and we left them at the hotel. But really a special place. The fish you see in a couple of the pictures were kind of scary. They were everywhere and they were probably used to people feeding them because they nipped at Dan's toes when he stuck them in. But we didn't get bothered when we were actually swimming, so it wasn't a big deal.
After Erawan we went to the town of Kanchanaburi which is home to the actual bridge on the river Kwai. The movie was shot in Sri Lanka, but the bridge was actually in Kanchanaburi. We got to walk across it and on the way back we saw a Komodo dragon swimming in the Kwai River. It was really neat to visit a place with such historical significance. We got there too late to visit the WWII war memorials and museums, but the bridge was neat to see.
The next day was our Bangkok day. We walked around the city and visited the Grand Palace which was the most elaborately decorated complex I have ever seen in my life. It was breathtaking. SO elaborate. Lots of buildings that sparkled with color. The buildings were decorated with what looked like colored glass pieces. Really, really beautiful. The Thai architecture is really neat too, very ancient oriental feeling. One of the buildings housed the Emerald Buddha. It is a Buddha statue carved out of jade that sits on a huge gold pedestal. No photography was allowed inside and we were not allowed to point our feet at the Buddha. There was a window on the outside that we could take pictures through, sorry it didn't come out very well it was a hard pic to get.
After the Palace we went back to a place by the hotel and got a Thai massage. Then we headed back to the night market for one more bout of shopping before we left for the airport. The night market was a really neat place. Kind of like a fair that is open every night. They have a ferris wheel, a beer garden, lots of places to get food, and a stage with live music. Very fun place to hang out.
We had a great time in Thailand, it was really beautiful and we felt like we took full advantage of the little time we had there. Our schedule was packed, but had we had one more day we would have liked to check out the beaches. Oh well, maybe next time! Oh by the way, we have decided to extend our trip two weeks, so our new date of departure from India is July 28th. Unfortunately, I will have to miss the annual Porkies trip, but we have two more weekends and we plan on visiting Nepal! That will be great, but we have this weekend in Kerala to look forward to next. We miss you all!!
-Courtney