Today was our third and final full day in Bangkok. In the morning, we prepared for our exam. Then we took the exam and headed to lunch at a really nice buffet called the Red Oven. It had lots of different types of food and it was all delicious. My favorite was probably the salmon nigiri from the Japanese section and the Luk Chup dessert from the Thai section. They also had a chocolate fountain, which I normally think is gross, but there were no children present so I indulged. The buffet was in a tall building with a balcony so we also got to go out and look over the city.
After lunch we went to MBK market. It was basically a giant mall. We really wanted to buy a beer shirt and were hoping to find something more along the lines of the street markets we’d seen in Vietnam and Cambodia. They had a crafts market in the 6th floor but we weren’t super impressed with it and went looking for a market in the city.
We found ourselves wandering through Little India and a few different markets that clearly weren’t meant for tourists. There were a lot of people selling clothes that weren’t American brands our tourist t-shirts. Although it was really cool to find this, we were on a mission and had limited time before we had to get back to the hotel to head to Thai Boxing. We checked out the markets for a bit and then headed back towards the hotel to see some markets we knew were around there.
Finally, we found what is apparently the only beer shirt in the city. The lady overcharged us even after bargaining and then looked really sad when we settled on a price and she said she wouldn’t even make any money on the sale. There is literally no way that is true but I know that you have to be tough or you’ll get taken advantage of in these situations so I stayed strong (which was hard because the woman clearly knew that I was a weenie as this was all totally for my benefit). However, we got the shirts and that was what we wanted so we headed back to the hotel happy.
From there we had to get ready really fast and then we all got on a bus to go to Thai Boxing at Rajadamnern Thai Boxing Stadium. This was not an official activity, however so many of us went that we got to use the bus to take us there. Thai Boxing, or Muay Thai, was quite the experience. The boxers were very small and young compared to what you see in the United States, and punching was less important. It was a lot of kicking and elbows which is what differentiates Thai boxing from regular boxing. It consisted of 9 fights of 5 rounds each, and the seventh fight was the featured fight. It was definitely my favorite thing we did in Thailand and I’m so glad we got to do it!
After Thai boxing, we went back to the hotel to prepare to travel to Singapore in the morning. Although I didn’t fall in love with Bangkok like I did with Ho Chi Minh City, I was so grateful to get to go and had a really great experience!
Allison Around the World 