Bangkok, Thailand {Part 1}

It's been a few days since we've gotten back and it's really taken a while to get readjusted for both of us. SE Asia is a full 12 hours ahead of Dallas, so it was a complete flip flop! It's even worse for Jason who is currently in Las Vegas for a work conference. Luckily, we didn't hit the jet lag on the way there.

We started our trip flying to SFO where we caught a Delta plane to Tokyo and then Bangkok. All I have to say is - THANK YOU DELTA! We got upgraded to Economy Comfort - which is essentially their business class. It was such a nice treat. We slept as much as possible on both flights and 21 hours later (eep!), we arrived!

We honestly had such a stroke of luck for our trip. It was unconsciously planned right during the middle of SE Asia's New Year's festival - Songkran. It definitely made some of the trips to their Wats (temples) crazy, but it ALSO gave us the experience of the biggest water fight in the world. No joke. Jason and I literally got soaked every day we were there. This was a blessing really since it was so hot - Houston in August hot.

Our first day began at the Grand Palace. This used to be the residence of the royal family until the 1920s. There are many different buildings, halls, and pavilions set around open lawns, gardens and courtyards. We spent a large part of the morning just exploring. It was so beautiful and ornate - really unlike anything we'd ever seen before. At one point, we were SO hot that Jason agreed to go into a museum about textiles, haha. Also, one little side note: since this is a functioning Wat, men and women must be covered at the shoulders and knees. For some reason, I was deemed acceptable, but Jason had to "rent" (via deposit) a pair of very stylish pants.

Next up, we went to Wat Pho which houses the famous Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This is the birthplace of the traditional Thai massage. Unfortunately/fortunately for us, it was Songkran, so it was packed with vendors selling food/crafts, so no massages for us! One really interesting thing we saw people doing was placing coins into bowls. 108 bowls to be exact. This was supposed to signify the 108 vices the Buddha had to overcome to reach enlightenment.

We tried Jason's favorite food here as well - roti. We really haven't found a way to describe this yet. If a banana crepe and pancake had a baby, it would somewhat close to this. We even came back to this exact temple the next day to get more :) It was only $1.25, so we might have gotten 3...

We took a tuk tuk back to our hotel which was super fun mainly because we got drenched! Kids would take up stations along the sides of the road with super soakers, buckets of water and HOSES and spray anyone that passed. It is supposed to be a blessing, but honestly, I think it's more just about getting people soaked. We were prepared by our hotel and only had our water camera and photocopies of our passports, so all was good!