Shopping in Bangkok and visiting temples in Ayutthaya

Grand Palace in Bangkok

What a perfect weekend! On Saturday we took the bus to Bangkok. We went to the Grand Palace, walked around and went shopping. I was happy to have some AIESECers with us because I would’ve had no idea where to go or how to tell the taxi driver where to go. The shopping mall was crazy! I’ve never seen something like it! So many tiny stores selling lots stuff – mainly clothes, but also jewelry, shoes, bags etc. Just one floor took us a long time, and there were 5 floors! Exhausted after a long day, we all went to have ice cream, then took the tuktuk which was quite fun. That night we went to a party with lots of Thai music. Some of the songs were good, but according to the translations the songs were all about a girl and a boy breaking up and we couldn’t sing along like everyone else.

The next day we some teachers from the school took us to Ayutthaya. We first went to a temple with a huge golden Buddha inside. They were having some type of a ceremony (maybe comparable to a church service?). Everyone was sitting on the ground praying and some people had a tray with orange cloth on it that they gave as an offering. This cloth was knotted together and then put over the heads of everyone while they prayed. Then they gathered the cloth together and draped it over the huge Buddha.

Very big Buddha in Temple

Next stop was a very old temple site. We climbed the stairs to the top and I was expecting some fancy gold stuff, but there were only a few Buddha statues that people were going around sticking little pieces of gold on. After that we went to some other temple complex, though it reminded me more of an amusement park with all the kitsch – statues, monk figures with funny glasses, cheap looking plastic animals etc. This didn’t seem to distract the people from praying. We went on to an elephant show and then had lunch.

Old temple

In the afternoon we visited the floating market. By then I was really hot and tired, so the coconut ice cream served in a coconut tasted very refreshing. And I learned that there’s also a green coconut that’s soft inside, not like the brown shelled dry one I know.