Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew

We’re almost done with orientation, and today was a chance to explore the city a little bit. We all loaded into 3 double-decker buses bound for the Grand Palace. These definitely were Super Elegance…except if you had to use the bathroom… They even came with some reading material (Thai Cosmo? and a creepy comic):

Orientation

So, I've been holed up in an intense orientation for the last few days while Jack has been exploring Bangkok. My training consists mainly of Thai language, teaching ESL, and the Thai school system. The upside to the long, exhausting days is the food...every few hours. We get a buffet breakfast, coffee/snack breaks twice a day, and a buffet lunch. Yeah, we're pretty spoiled. Here are some samplings:

Day Two in Krueng Tep (Bangkok)

Skytrain above the downtown traffic

Jack and I started our second day a little more refreshed than the first. After talking with Eric yesterday, we had big plans to take the ferry along the river and check out the Grand Palace. Our hostel is right off the BTS line, a Skytrain that runs all around town. Bangkok has THE most amazing public transportation and it is incredibly affordable. In addition to the Skytrain, there is an elaborate subway system and plenty of busses.

We took the Skytrain to the central stop of the Chao Praya Express. This is a system of ferries that runs along the Chao Praya river making various stops depending on the line. Eric recommended we avoid the tourist line and take the orange line instead. Good call!

Jack's First Bangkok Update

Hello everybody! It's your brother Jack with an update from Bangkok. My elation from arriving safely after our twenty hour plane ride has yet to wear off. I'm loving everything about Bangkok; as a fellow English speaker at my hostel put it, "When the only downside to a city is that the pineapple is too sweet, you know you've got a winner."

Day One of Bangkok Fun

How bizarre it felt to wake up this morning thinking, oh yeah we're in Thailand now! Once I heard one little noise this morning, I was wide awake and totally excited again.

Not exactly what I had in mind for my first Thai meal
but hey, we have places to go, people!

Jack and I got ready and headed out for some breakfast. We'd read that Thais don't really eat what westerners would consider breakfast foods like eggs, toast, pancakes, etc, so we decided to just get a few quick things at the 7/11 on our corner (they are everywhere here). We ended up getting yogurt, chocolate milk, iced coffee, coconut cookies, water, chopped mango, and spongey cake for about $3.50.

Most everything was better than we thought it would be (we didn't know what to expect so we kept our expectations low). I realized after we got back to the hostel that the mango bag said pickled mangos--uh oh! The ingredients list was also in English and I didn't see anything about vinegar so I suspected it might be a translation issue. Oh well, let's try it!