Bangkok & Beyond

Because we only planned for two days in and around Bangkok, Bea and I opted for a guided tour of a few sights just north of the Capitol. Thailand is famous for its floating markets, which were started by the Chinese hundreds of years ago. Chinese immigrants settled in Kanchanaburi and dug over 220 canals by hand in an effort to simulate the canals in China. As a result, Kanchanburi is now famous for its floating markets, and as such, it was packed with tourists. But nevertheless, it was one of those quintessential images of Thailand that we both wanted to see.

After spending the morning wandering through the market, it was back on the bus for our next stop at the River Kwai Bridge. This bridge was made famous by the movie "The Bridge Over the River Kwai," which depicts its significance during World War II.

Our last stop of the day was at the Tiger Temple. From pamphlets and accounts by other tourists, both Beatriz and I expected something completely different. First, we show up unaware that you are not allowed to wear any hot colors (red, orange or pink), as these are the only colors that tigers can see, thus putting you at heightened risk of becoming a tiger feast. Completely unaware of this, I show up wearing an orange dress and am told that I cannot enter unless I can find something else to wear. I ended up having to buy pants and a t-shirt from the gift shop for 400 baht ($13)...way over my $10 a day budget! Second, we had expected the temple to be a serene, peaceful place where monks and tigers live side by side, but instead it was a tourist trap like I've never seen. We had to line up to take pictures with the tigers, the token monk walked around and posed in pictures, and if we wanted "special" photos with the tigers, it would be an extra 1000 baht ($30)! I am glad that I bit the bullet and bought the new outfit because it was really neat getting so close to such big cats.