Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand!

I should warn you ahead of time: this message is really long, but we had a jam-packed weekend so I have a lot to update you on!

On Friday, our group flew to Bangkok, Thailand. Saturday morning we went to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. We watched a tiger show, crocodile show, pig race, and took pictures with orangutans and tigers. We then went to Nong Nooch Village where we walked around the botanical garden, watched the Thai Cultural Show, and then immediately went over to see the elephant show. That one was hilarious – we watched elephants playing soccer, basketball, riding tricycles, and even painting! After our authentic Thai dinner, we went to the Alcazar Cabaret Show, where Thai “lady-boys” performed in various acts. Thailand is one of the top places in the world for plastic surgery, so all of the acts were centered around women that were originally born men…you can hardly tell at all, a lot of them were really pretty! After the show we just walked around a little more and then headed to bed.

On Sunday, we left Pattaya for Bangkok and stopped on the way at the world’s largest jewelry store where we took a tour and then walked around and shopped. Then, we went to Elephant Village Pattaya and got to go on an elephant ride!!!!! I have a lot of pictures from that – it was an absolute blast! Afterwards we went to Platinum Mall to kill some time before heading out for dinner. All of the places we ate were authentic Thai restaurants and they were delicious! After dinner we headed to the Pat Pong Night Bazaar, where I spent most of my money shopping and bargaining down prices as low as I could get. To get back to the hotel, we had to get one of the Thailand taxis called a “tuk-tuk” – an open 3-wheeled motorized scooter with a giant seat for 3 people (or 4 if you cram haha) that drives on the roads with all the other cars and mopeds. That was quite the experience and thankfully we were able to make it back safely to the hotel. 

Monday morning (after our 5 am wake-up call – yuck!) we drove 2 hours to the Floating Market. It was so much fun! We sat in these long skinny boats and after riding a little ways down a river, we came to the market area where Thai people were selling their goods right from their boats along the sides of the river. I also was able to bargain here to get some good souvenirs. They sell everything from souvenirs to clothes and food – pretty much anything you can think of. Afterwards, we had lunch and then drove back to the airport to fly back to Singapore.

Today after work, a few of us met up and went on the Singapore Flyer – a huge ferris wheel that takes you on a 30 minute ride and is one of the touristy things you have to do when you visit Singapore. I got some good pictures and enjoyed it. I only have 2 more days of work and full days to spend in Singapore, so we’re going to be trying to see all the places we enjoyed the most here and getting some last minute souvenir shopping done in the next few days.

Friday we leave for Malaysia, fly to Bali on Monday, and then back to the states next Friday – I can’t wait! Miss everyone back home and can’t wait to see you in less than a week and a half!