Bangkok

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For those of you who have already been to Bangkok this journal entry will not tell you anything you don't already know.  Bangkok stinks!  Seriously, it really smells.  I've been told that nobody really likes Bangkok the first time they pass through it, and that was certainly true for us.  We were glad to get out of there.

Despite its "steaminess" (i.e., pollution trapped by humidity), Rinat and I ventured into the big city with our eyes wide open ready to soak it up, sans ping-pong show.  So off we went to pay homage to Buddha in his many incarnations, because while Bangkok can seem the most un-Buddhist of places, it seemed like the right way to start the trip.  We say the Emerald Buddha in the Grand Palace, the giant reclining buddha at Wat Pho, and not to be outdone the Golden Buddha at Wat Traimit in Chinatown.  We saw Wats ("temples") a plenty.  Thailand's temples, unlike its neighbors, are relatively well-preserved.  And the Thais use their old temples; the smell of incense wafting in all directions at Wat Mangkon, also in Chinatown, combined with the humidity, definitely made us dizzy.  As it turned out, we arrived in Thailand the week before a Buddha holiday, not sure which one, but one which clearly requires a lot of incense-lighting, alms-giving, and praying to Buddha.  We were able to witness that first-hand.

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We also saw several markets in Bangkok - somewhat by accident because we have no intention of doing any shopping at this early point of the trip.  That didn't stop Rinat from "window-shopping" to prepare for our return trip to Bangkok.

In conclusion (state with a British accent), our first two days in Bangkok involved a lot of walking and just as much sweating.  Needless to say, I had to wind down with a Thai massage both days (if you're even thinking about the happy ending right now you should be ashamed), and some street pad thai, which was better than any pad thai we've ever had.  Note:  we're now sick of pad thai.

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The only question left was how to get out of Bangkok asap.  Unfortunately for us, due to the aforementioned holiday, the island that we planned to go to on the way to Cambodia, our next destination, was fully booked for the weekend, or too expensive, so we planned a side trip to Kanchanaburi (see next entry) for a few days before heading to said island.