Thailand 2010 (The Conclusion)

 

My whole Thailand experience was a soup of experiences.  My first trip there with the RX family early this year was a mere flirtation, while this trip was an all-out relationship.  I got to know Thailand more intimately and it was one of the most interesting travel experience I’ve ever had.  During the trip, I couldn’t resist not photographing funny signs like these:

I was actually surprised that for a country deluged with tourists, very few Thais speak good English.  It was a bit difficult trying to communicate with the locals.  And the food!  I’ve blogged about the incredible Thai cuisine (I’d go back just for the food alone!).  From fine dining to street food, it’s a dizzying orgasm of flavor:

But I must say, out of all the dishes I hungrily shoveled into my craving maw, the most unique, surprisingly, came from one of the most common dishes,: the omelet.  I’ll let the picture speak for itself.  I’ve never seen omelet cooked this way.  I call it: “the 12-inch, uncut omelet”.

My encounters with animals was also amazing.  Here are some more of the animal photos I got from the trip:

(This guy runs, then slide towards the croc, and right before he gets his “omelet chomped off, he steps on the brakes. Weird)

(This had everyone shrieking.  This guy would reach into the croc’s gullet to retrieve a 1 thousand baht bill.)

(This has got to be the most nervous smile I could muster. I was more scared of the croc dude behind me. Just minutes earlier these crocs were thrashing around in their pool.)

(After I posed with this regal cat, I felt really guilty because I realized how he was chained and bound for tourists like us to gawk at and take pictures with.)

(This was a baby, believe it or not.  The mom and dad elephants were MUCH bigger.)

(I just liked this because of the twin-twin theme. And the 2 cats looked like the cartoon character catdog?)

The statues were also fun.  It brought out the “annoying-tourist-and-his-silly-poses” in me:

And a funny anecdote, we were told our last stop would be the Giant Buddha.  When we got down, we turned right and went straight for this statue:

We were like, This is the Giant Buddha? Wow, what a letdown.  First, it wasn’t really THAT big.  Second, it looked more like a she-demon than a Buddha.  This would inspire more nightmares than meditations, in my humble opinion.  Then someone overheard our gripes and said, “Turn around”.  When we did, we saw this:

Then he said something in Thai, which I’m guessing roughly translates to: “Stupid tourists…“

Then of course there’s the city side of Thailand.  They have traffic just like us, but surprisingly in a much more orderly way.  They never have those free-for-alls like we do here.  Check out this photo I took:

I was just so impressed that the flow was so congested, yet everyone stayed in their lanes!  And I also got to finally ride the tuktuk:

I know, it’s the: “tourist-pretending-to-drive-the-tuktuk-even-though-everyone-knows-it’s-actually-parked” shot.

I’ve basically posted my detailed experiences in my daily posts during the trip, but suffice it to say I really enjoyed myself.  I hope to return again, this time to visit Chiang Mai and the elephants, the floating market, Chatuchak (we always go to the soon to be extinct Suan Lum), Chao Praya, and the other wonders of Thailand still waiting to be explored.  I just hope it will be just as enriching an experience as this one.  “Siam, Khob Khun Khrap!”