Well hello Thailand...

Most of us have our mental bucket lists of at least a few breathtaking places in this world we'd like to see in our lifetimes right? Now, I'm not saying I've had this life long dream of coming to Taiwan because to be quite honest if you'd asked me anything about Taiwan a year ago the most I'd probably have been able to tell you is that it's in Asia. But Thailand has definitely been in my top 5 for a long time. I mean come on, anyone who's seen a picture of the gorgeous crystal blue waters and the tall coconut trees of Southern Thailand would agree it's obviously a slice of paradise. So  being in Taiwan I figured I've no excuse not to make my way to Thailand while I'm in the neighborhood...or at least in the hemisphere. 

Unfortunately I didn't visit Southern Thailand this time but instead met my travel group in Bangkok and then spent 9 days traveling from there up to Northern Thailand and even across the Laos border. Anyways that leaves me with a completely legitimate excuse to return to Thailand in the future right? I took hundreds of photos so obviously it would be a little difficult to share them all in one post so I've decided to split them up. So I'll start from here with Bangkok!

View from our hotel room ^ which I'll admit is anything but impressive in photos but once you stepped out of this little area and on to the main road it was completely different. Tuk tuks and food stands every where. Typical of a large city it was chaotic to say the least, loud streets (tons of honking), exotic smells, and what would be an Asian country without having at least a handful of 

7-11's in site at all times? 

Our first day touring in Bangkok was a busy one. Our transportation for the morning was a pretty loud bus with wooden floors and no AC. I think this made us all a little weary seeing as we were to be taking a 7 hour public bus ride that evening. Thankfully that one turned out to be a more comfortable, air conditioned coach. By the way in case you're interested on how a Thai native instructs you to take a public bus "When you see the bus, run!" Fortunately, the bus actually came to a stop and we didn't have to do the whole run and jump maneuver. 

Wat Pho sometimes referred to as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha was the first stop of the day. Although I'd checked out some photos of the famous reclining Buddha I certainly wasn't expecting it to be so large in person. It's feet alone are 3 meters high and it's pretty much impossible to squeeze the whole statue into a single photo. 

Surrounding the temple were tons of Buddhist stupas which are basically monuments that house people's remains. As you can see the stupas in these pictures are massive and very ornate with lots of colorful porcelain embellishments. 

Who would've thought that something which is basically a graveyard could be so picturesque? 

Just one of the walls lined with Buddhas which had come from all over Thailand. 

There was an initiation of new monks on the day we visited the temple so we got to take a peek of the monks and their families during the ceremony.

A market in China Town with tons of dried meat, fish, and who knows what else.

Later we took a long-boat tour of the Bangkok canal. Our tour guide told us it was their version of a gondola tour in Venice haha 

Well I think that's about it for Bangkok. I was only there for a couple of days so there's tons more I didn't get to see. One thing I really would've liked to see was the weekend market which I've heard is enormous. But I guess that's something else I can add to my list of reasons to return. 

Enjoy the photos there's many more to come! 

Ash

 And of course what's a stay in Bangkok without a Tuk Tuk ride?! Definitely not the most relaxing mode of transportation. I swear it took me back to my first couple of terrified rides on a scooter in Taiwan O_o