Bangkok: Where temples and tuk-tuks reign supreme.

Making it to Thailand was a bit of a roundabout decision. Aren’t they all on this whirlwind journey? A friend recently sent me an article on traveling and this quote resonated with me as a validation of my lack of planning: ‘Plans insinuate an underlying purpose, and from your experience, traveling without one always leads to more excitement.’

Thailand was top on my list for a long time now. I wanted to spend a significant amount of time in there and fill in other countries accordingly. We were going back and forth with how we wanted to organize our loop through southeast Asia. We had so many places were on the list: Where should we start? Finally we came to the conclusion of: If Thailand is top on our list why are we looking into going to other countries first? Let’s just go so we don’t miss anything. Verdict: Good decision all around.

We arrived to Thailand during Chinese New Year. It is the year of the Goat. Celebrate accordingly.

Bottle-cap checkers on the street of Bangkok.

Our first day in Bangkok, we hired a tuk-tuk to take us around to see the sights. Tuk-tuks are essentially rickshaws attached to mopeds. These things are both practical and ridiculous. You have to take them for what they are: a necessary means to getting around the city, while being subjected to various ‘stops’ along the way.

A line of 'tuk-tuks' waiting outside one of the many stops along the way. — A line of ‘tuk-tuks’ waiting outside one of the many stops along the way.

If you are taking them from point A to point B, with a set price negotiated before departure, than all is well. If you want to see the city and are not going to an exact location, then be prepared to see more than you bargained for. Our guy was very sweet, and took us to various temples around the city. In addition to that, we experienced a jewelry expo, a travel agency, and even a men’s tailor shop (I guess Julia and I should have mentioned that were not looking for a custom tailored man’s suit before hoping aboard. Silly us!) When arriving at the last stop Julia noted “Gee, all the tuk-tuks are lined up in a row outside this shop. Such a coincidence!” But none of this seemed to bother us all that much. Our driver was a sweet, funny guy. He showed us a bunch of beautiful sights and got a couple kick-backs along the way. We didn’t mind all that much.