Thailand – day four

Today was one of the very best days! It was the longest day we’ve had yet even though we didn’t intend for it to be that way. Jenna and I got brave this morning and went to our morning drink stop without Angi! We tried to use a little bit of Thai but ended up just repeating hello how are you and thank you lol. The lady who makes our drinks actually speaks a bit of English so it was more confusing than anything thing else. But nonetheless it’s made us feel very independent!

We left Angi and Solomon’s house around 9:30 this morning and hopped in a Taxi to our first adventure which was going to the park! This is a very big deal as Bangkok has lots of buildings, cars and people but not a lot of wide open spaces. When we started our journey we were in JJ Park. We found this park beautiful and entertaining. They had a “workout” area with helpful signs that told us what to do at each station. We seriously looked crazy running around in the Bangkok heat but had a very good time and entertained ourselves well!

After this our journey looks more like a version of Elf’s story as he talks about how he made it to New York. We walked/exercised through JJ park and then found a second park which we only found by weaving our way across some stones through a very jungly path and then across the street through a big gate and what looked like a plant nusery. Once in the park we were just in awe of how beautiful, clean and quiet it was. We truly lost track of being in the middle of the city! There were all kinds of new plants to see, vibrant trees, bridges, walkways and TONS of lily pads.

We actually thought we were in the right park but realized that we weren’t and had to double back to find an iron bridge which took us to our third and final destiation. We walked all the way through the park and finally after severa hours in the sun enjoyed some air conditioning. I ordered an iced caramel macchiato and it was truly heavenly. Plus it was like $1.25 (not sure how I will ever return to Starbucks). The airconditioned and extremely tasty lunch (garlic pork and rice) was just what we needed to get the energy to rent bikes and ride around the shaded park (which was formerly a golf course!)

This was a special treat for all of us who enjoy being outside but in all the years she has lived here hasn’t really been able to truly enjoy being outside in the city! We rode and rode the bikes to our hearts content and then finally turned them back in and set out for our next leg of the journey. The parks were very close to a Bangkok Transit System skytrain station (BTS for short). The BTS is extensive AND has awesome air conditioning! We were pretty close to disgusting and actually left sweat behind us in our seats!

Our first stop on the BTS was to visit CrossFit Bangkok! We got a tour of the building (very narrow and pretty tall) and I bought a shirt. This was on my Thailand bucket list and I really enjoyed getting to see it. They work out on the top of the building, right in the middle of the city. I truly cannot imagine doing a WOD there when the ones in Lynchburg leave me breathless and sweating in a heap on the floor! I put on my shirt and took a few pictures, felt really silly but proud!

We hopped back on the BTS and then landed back near the GIANT mall called Siam Paragon. It’s not strange that we’ve been going to a lot of malls because it’s a very Thai thing to do. This particular trip was really fun basically we acted like 13 year old girls walking around, giggling, eating sweets, taking funny pictures. The sweets part was really funny because of all the things I’ve tried here, the American style sugar is what made my stomach upset!

We found a lot of fun and interesting stores but this place was pretty pricey so we didn’t buy very much. Dinner was in the food court of the mall which is something that’s interesting too! You basically buy a gift card and then go to the little food stops to purchase food. I had the volcano chicken again! You take the card back to the kiosk and they give you the change! I hope little stories like this are interesting to you guys!

We made it back to GES after having been gone for 10 hours! We were SPENT. More adventures to come as today we’re going to an elephant sanctuary!