Michelle made it in safely to Bangkok late Thursday night after a long 28 hour travel. After some zzz's we got up early(7am) for a full day in Bangkok. This is a little synopsis of what we managed to fit in our day...

1. Figure out the public transportation. Thankfully, there are tons of different ways to get around in Bangkok: bus, skytrain (like the metro), car taxis, motorbike taxis, and tuk-tuks (bikes that pull a carriage sort of contraption). Depending on traffic, the best bet is the skytrain. After reading the maps (ya'll might be surprised, but yours truly was dubbed navigator on this trip:) we figured out the stops we needed for the day and proceeded on our journey.

2. Beaches...how fast can we get there??!!! Our first stop was to the train station to get some tickets to the beach- pronto! We'd been in Bangkok less than one day, but quickly realized that we'd like to explore much more of Thailand. Once we arrived at the train station by taking the skytrain (costs about $1 per ride) we had our first encounter with a pushy Thai trying to sell you something you don't need. This lady outside the station started giving us some advice on where to go and what to take (train, bus, ferry). She had a "free travel information" sign on her shirt, so we thought we'd ask her a few questions. She told us she worked for the station, but then she made us come around the station to a back road 'travel agency' where they spiked up the prices to dupe the tourists. We got out of there quickly and were able to take care of everything on the inside of the station...disaster prevented. We ended up scheduling a night train from Bangkok to Surat Thani that would leave at 5pm and arrive at 4am where we'd take a bus (then a ferry...but that's another story).

3. The Grand Palace. So we make it to the grand palace via the skytrain and then a quick, but scary, taxi ride. As soon as we get dropped off we are harrassed by a group of people that tell us the palace is closed but will open in three hours, but still had to walk down a ways to pick up some tickets for later. We gullibly belive them, but along the way meet a kind english couple that tell us its a scam. Apparently once you walk the distance to buy the tickets they try and sell you another attraction/sightseeing ticket for the three hours until the palace 'reopens'. Turns out- palace is definitely OPEN- it was never closed. We are really starting to get irritated about people lying to us. Anyways, this ENORMOUS residence/palace houses the king (supposedly) and was built back in the 16th century (I know, your not here for a history lesson). It's amazing how detailed all the temples withing the palace are. One word to describe it- Goddy! Oh, and I forgot to mention that my capris were too short (mid calf) to go into the palace so they let me 'rent' a wraparound skirt, which is shown in a lot of my pictures. I actually kind of liked it and Michelle is thinking she wants to buy one.

4. A walk around the town. Once we were finished at the palace we decided we would take a stroll around the surrounding areas and see where we find ourselves. Trying to walk along the sidewalks down some of these roads is rediculous because they are lined with vendors on each side trying to sell you something. Goodness knows you can't walk in the street for fear of being run over by one of the crazy taxi drivers though (they dont' have traffic laws, it seems). After walking a bit we made it to a Thai university that we walked through and found ourselves in their open air cafeteria. This was our first meeting with Thai food (well, I had a little something the day before). All we could do was walk up to a vendor and point to someones dish and tell them we wanted that. We started on the safe side and shared a noodle soup and fried rice (okay, we'll get to the crazy foods within a short time...) Lunch was successful! Oh, and strange thing- they don't use napkins...ANYWHERE! If your lucky, you go to a place that has toilet paper on the table:). Oh, and did I mention how much our lunch cost us? Only 30 Baht each, which is equivelent to less than $1 (one dollar=34 baht).

5. Wat Arun. All I can say...LOTS OF STAIRS!



***So we've done a lot more, but I don't have any time to write about it right now, as I'm being charged out the wazoo at an internet cafe. Quick update: we took the train, bus, then ferry to the island of Ko Phi Phi (have you ever seen the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio called The Beach?). It is absolutely marvelous here but we have booked another ticket for tomorrow to go to Khoa Sok which has a national park on it that we plan on trekking for a few days. After that we'll most likely head back to Bangkok and then head out to Cambodia with Rachel's sister. I'll try and keep in touch as much as possible! Take care and God Bless!