Thailand: Bangkok

After the Philippines we made our way by boat and plane to Thailand where we arrived in Bangkok. Our first night there was miserable. We try to live on the cheap as much as possible and therefor for a room without A/C and only a fan. It wasn't so bad once we opened the windows to the night air but then the fireworks and pot banging began... it was Chinese New Year (this is celebrated throughout Asia) Once things quieted down we got to sleep for a few hours and then Dayton woke up with bug bites all over his legs that began to swell. He searched everywhere for the bug but to no avail. We both began to worry about what bug it could have been and especially the size of the bites but he took some benadryl and we both went back to sleep. The next morning we got some breakfast and attempted to make our way to church in downtown Bangkok via bus. This turned out disastrous as we got lost while wondering around. We eventually found someone that took us to a TAT office (tourism authority of thailand) There we planned our stay in Thailand and paid for an all inclusive custom tour. We paid our money and awaited all the transportation tickets and receipts to come the following day. We enjoyed more of Bangkok as we spent time at a park and changed hostels (to one with a more quiet atmosphere) We spent an afternoon walking around the city and stumbling across different temples that amazingly were very peaceful places among the roar of the city. As soon as we entered the doors to the temple grounds the noise and commotion left us and we watched as groups of Buddhist monks walked by to go say their prayers. After dinner we walked around the night market where I've never seen so many Europeans with dreadlocks. This place was truly hippie central. Everyone was speaking English and hawkers were peddling everything you can imagine, CD's, DVD's, massages (a little extra money could get you a happy ending), all sorts of toys and trinkets, parody t-shirts, and my personal favorite, diplomas, driver's licenses and passports. One man approached me asking me if I wanted to see a ping-pong show. I thought that sounded pretty cool, scenes from forest gump came to mind, fast-paced extreme ping pong tournament. When he handed me a card with a preview of what I'd be seeing I wanted to vomit on his shoes. Not the ping-pong I was thinking of. It wouldn't be a tourist destination in Asia without Indian men asking us if we wanted to buy a suit. We were practically bombarded by people trying to sell us stuff but it made for an interesting evening. The next morning we waiting outside out hostel to be picked up by our driver for transport to our next city. We waited, and waited, and waited. They never came. An angry fire began to burn inside me and I saw myself storming into the TAT office and punching the guy in the face (he was a Canadian living there in Thailand). We arrived to the office and were greeted by a nice, pretty Thai woman who sorted out all the issues and arranged for transportation for us and also compensated us for our taxi fares. I learned pretty quick to stop jumping to conclusions. We were taken to the nicest hotel in Bangkok and we were met by another young Thai girl who put a small round sticker on each of us as we boarded a minivan to our next destination. Having no idea what the sticker was for we made our way to Kanchanaburi.