Today is the day we finally get to meet the whole group. There were 20 of us – about half were from JU and the rest signed up through EF College Break. Two guys and 18 girls. We had an entire bus to ourselves and it was new and comfortable bus. Our tour guide, Kong, was very knowledgeable about his city and his country and he also had a great sense of humor! He was really funny and he liked to call our group “family.�

The itinerary for today was a guided sightseeing tour of Bangkok. We went on a boat ride along the Chao Phraya River where we saw a lot of interesting things. Spirit houses were present in almost all houses we saw, there was a temple every 500 meters or so, we saw a giant lizard lounging in the heat, we fed a school of really big fish, we met a group of young students who were promoting river clean up or something like that. Although people lived on the banks, it was not dirty. The river was brown due to sediments or something but I didn’t see garbage. I wish it was like that here in my country.

We made a stop at the Temple of Dawn where we got pictures at the top of the temple. We drank coconut juice –it tasted like the ones here at home. Then we went to the Grand Palace. It was gorgeous and huge! I especially loved the part where they had the miniature Angkor Wat and all those elephant statues. The Palace itself was huge. Kong showed us where the part of the movie The King and I was shot. We also went to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha were people were only allowed to take photos outside of the chamber where the Buddha was. There were so many people that day! They say you haven’t seen Bangkok if you haven’t seen the Grand Palace that’s why I thought it was a grand idea to have us visit there on our first day of the tour.

For lunch, we went to a ship/restaurant. I forgot what it was called but all of the people there appeared to be tourists and I saw some of them at the Temple of Dawn and Grand Palace. The food was, as expected, very delicious and very hot! While I was about to go and get a plate, Kong took me aside and asked me if I was Thai! Hahaha! I told him I was Filipino and he said I really look Thai and he’d been asked several times already if he had Thai’s on his group. I thanked him and told him it’s nice to be mistaken as Thai. Maybe I wouldn’t get ripped off in Thailand. Haha

Afterwards, we went to a nice tailoring shop. It was grand and Kong told the group this shop had been featured in National Geographic or something and this made it to the top 10 list of places to visit in Bangkok. The fabrics were really soft and I wish my mom was there. She would have loved to see that place.

After an hour or so, we took the complimentary van from the shop to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. My friend Anna had told me about this place and I was excited to go there. The group split up and I bought some stuff for some people. The market itself was really huge and full of both local people and tourists. We had to go back to the hotel to freshen up because we were going to have dinner at a restaurant that had a stage and showed traditional dances. This restaurant was really good and there were about 4 or 5 long tables and we sat down on the floor. Our group was the first to arrive and after a while other groups came in as well.

The presentation was fantastic. The hostess told the story in English and then translated it to French and Spanish. Portuguese also, I think. The storyline was pretty much the same as the mural in the Grand Palace. The eternal battle between good and evil. All in all, I thought it was a pretty nice performance.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. We were all tired after an exciting day and we tucked in shortly after we got back.