Exploring Bangkok - Part 1

I've spent the past 3 days in Bangkok to attend training for the ADP program. The first day I met up with Thomas, my colleague working in Pune, India and from Ireland, to explore the city. We headed off by boat to visit Wat Arun and Wat Po. I've been to both before, but it was great to visit them again. I'm especially a fan of Wat Arun, "Temple of Dawn," which sits right on the river.

Please note the Chanel sunglasses on the top of my head in the photo to the left, as this is the last time you will see them. They are now sitting at the bottom of the Chao Phraya River.

We then visited Wat Po, and after wandering around for a bit, we stopped for wonderful Thai massages (only 220 baht or $6)! Worn out from the heat, we headed back to the hotel in the evening and had dinner there. Plus, we had to get ready for our big class the next day.

As it turned out, Thomas and I were the only two people attending this session. In the morning we met our instructor, Andrew, a Briton who lived in Canada for many years before volunteering and working in Nigeria, Cambodia and now Nepal. The class provided a lot of valuable information about development work and gave us the opportunity to share some of our experiences from the past few weeks in India.

Thursday night after class, we joined Andrew for drinks on the 52nd floor the Banyan Tree Hotel. The view was spectacular. For dinner, we headed to Jim Thompson's Saladaeng Cafe. Because there were soft-shelled crabs on the menu, I had to order them, and they were fabulous. After dinner, we split from Andrew and went to the Suan Lim Night Bazaar. There, I did the requisite shopping (5 handbags, a bathing suits, and a t-shirt) and we also took a ride on the ferris wheel. This seems to be Bangkok's attempt to match the London Eye.