The City of Exotic Animals, Muay Thai, and Khao San Road: Bangkok

Happy one month anniversary of living in Thailand to me! Part of me thinks it is crazy that I've already been here a week and another part feels like I have been here much longer. We finally got the courage to make our way to Bangkok for the weekend and I had a really good time!

We left Suphan Saturday morning for the 1.5 hour van ride to Bangkok. We took the van that drops you off at the Mo Chit (Pronounced Mo Shit) Bus Station, which is very close to the gigantic weekend market in Bangkok. We found our way to the market easily enough and spent about an hour or so snaking through the stalls selling clothing, jewelry, home decorations, furniture, and everything else you could think of including pet hedgehogs (I am very close to buying one), squirrels (yes pet squirrels), hundreds of puppies (so cute! But you aren't allowed to touch them), ferrets, and really any strange small animal you could think of. We then realized that we had only seen a fraction of the market and spent another 3 to 4 hours shopping and weaving our way around.  We probably still only saw about half of the market.  It wasn't as overwhelming as I expected though and really enjoyed it.  I spent 1,000 baht (gasp! So much!), but bought a lot of great clothes, jewelry, and a couple decorations (I remind myself that 1,000 baht is under $40 so life is good).

Pet Squirrel Anyone?

After the market we took a couple modes of transportation to the infamous Khao San Road. It is basically the cheapest place to stay in Bangkok and is a couple streets of purely backpackers and other foreigners.  It is mostly known for being the street that foreigners go party on. It was a pretty interesting scene and I am very happy we didn't spend much time there. The english teachers are practically the only white people in Suphan (population 40,000ish) so it was really weird being around so many other foreigners.
                                     

We had looked into going to a Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) fight so we took a taxi (with an awesome taxi driver) to the stadium. We were ready to spend more than desired, but when we got there it turned out tickets were at least twice as expensive as we thought. A quick group meeting and we decided what the heck let's do this!  We got ringside tickets for 1,600 baht (a little over $50) and enjoyed some boxing! I have never been to a boxing match at home and haven't even really watched it on TV, but I thought it was pretty cool. The first fight we saw was between the "heavy weights" AKA 150 pounds.  We then watched 5 or so more fights until the end.  Some of them were as small as 104 pounds and 14 years old! I felt a little guilty watching kids the age of my students (very strange perspective) beat each other up and get payed for it. Pretty much all of them were really respectful fighters, though, and would often smile when their opponent got a good shot, so it was all in good fun (although a couple were knocked out or bled, hmmm).

We went back to Khao San Road after the fight ended (after midnight) where it was in full swing. We watched some kids do some great brake dancing and people watched a little before going to bed.

It was great to sleep in finally and not feel like we had to do anything the next day. We planned on going to Wat Pho where there is a huge lounging Buddha, but unfortunately it was closed getting ready for Obama to visit a few hours after we tried to go! I wanted to hang around the Grand Palace where Obama was scheduled to be around 3 pm, but ended up hitting up Break Dawn Part 2 (oh yes) at an epic movie theater.

 

Bangkok is quite the money sucker and I don't plan on going back very soon, but had a great weekend all the same!