We arrived at the Bangkok airport at 11am on Sunday, Sept 15. We had booked a hotel in a busy section of town (Sukhumvit Road) while we were in Salang. Unfortunately our reservations were not confirmed and when we arrived at the hotel, they told us that they were full. After spending an hour looking for another hotel, we called a travel agent that was recommended by Dan's friend Aaron. She made a very quick phone call to the same hotel, and surprisingly was able to get us a room at the same rate we were origninaly quoted. This was our first lesson of how things got done in Thailand.

We walked around Sukhumvit Road for the rest of the afternoon, through the maze of street vendors, restaurants and hotels. We witnessed traffic that was very comparable to rush hour in Toronto, except that it seemed to be rush hour all day long. The smog in Bangkok was definately worse than KL and made breathing very difficult. It was pretty common to see people wearing surgeon's masks while driving their motorbikes. That night we went out to dinner at a place called Cabbages and Condoms, which Dan had read about in a restaurant magazine. The place specialized in Thai food and was a charitable restaurant were the proceeds went towards PDA (population and community development association). The restaurant design was surprisngly classy and the food was excellent. At the end of the meal condoms were given out with the bill instead of mints.

The next day was Yom Kippur (the fast of attonement) and we decided to take things slow, since Dan was fasting. Jen wasn't feeling great, so she did not fast. In the morning we went to a travel agent and booked our train and boat tickets to Ko Pha Ngan, the home of the full moon party. In the afternoon we went to see Jim Thompson's house. Jim Thompson was an American architect who moved to Thailand and revitalized the Thai silk industry during the 1st half of the 20th century. After that we went to Kaosan Road in search of the Jewish Chabad house. Kaosan Road is a backpackers' haven right in the middle of the city. We found the Chabad house and we waited there for the evening prayers to begin. The service was interesting, since it was a unique mixture of casual and formal. While the congregation, which consisted of 85% backpackers were all casually dressed, the service was formal and required the men to sit separately from the women. The service was all in hebrew, which made it challenging for both Jen and Dan. Nevertheless, it was an amazing to be together with Jewish people from all over the word on Yom Kippur and we were really glad we went. We ended the fast at the Chabad house over chocolate cake and coke.

The next day we caught the local bus to the Grand Palace. We arrived at noon and had to wait an hour for the Palace to re-open after lunch. While we waited we walked around the area and went to visit a Wat (Buddhist Temple). Bangkok has over 400 Wat temples that are scattered all over the city. At 1pm we went to the Grand Palace and went on a tour of the grounds, which were very impressive. Inside the Palace is the Wat Phra Kaeo, which holds a Buddha made entirely our of jade. It is worth mentioning that throughout the day we were "harrassed" by tons of taxis, tuk tuk's, street vendors, suit makers and "friendly" locals that would lie to us and try to convince us to go visit the government owned factory store (the government doesn't own any souvenir stores). Even though we were warned about all of this, it certainly was very annoying.

That night Dan dragged Jen to see Thai boxing. We took the bus from the Grand Palace to the boxing stadium, which was the most painful 90 minutes of the trip. The bus had no air conditionning and was strewing in the smog and traffic the whole way. It is safe to say that that bus ride shaved a few years of our lives! The boxing match was really interesting. Each match started with a 3 minute rythmic warm up by the fighter, which was accompanied by 4 musicians. Each match lasts 30 minutes and is made up of 5- 3 minute rounds with 5- 2 minute breaks. The Thai spectators were very animated and cheered after every punch, regardless of who they had bet on. After 2 hours, we had seen enough and decided to retire for the evening. (besides, Jen had fallen asleep).

The next day we went to see the Wat Pho, which houses a gigantic gold plated reclining Buddha. The feet are inlaid with mother of pearl. We then took the ferry to see the Wat Arun (temple of the dawn) which is a temple in a pyramid shape made out of pieces of porcelain. Afterwards we grabbed a local bus and headed back to pick up our bags from the hotel and headed over to the train station. That night we were supposed to take an overnight train to Ko Pha Ngan. However the traffic was awful and it ended up taking us 1 1/2 hours to get back to the hotel. By the time we grabbed our bags and got a taxi it started to downpour and traffic came to a halt. We realized we were not going to make the train, so we went back to the hotel in the hopes of rescheduling. After a number of frustrating conversations with the locals, Dan headed out in the rain to the train station to change the tickets, while Jen tried to check us into the hotel. What a painful experience!

The next day we woke up late and decided to stay in the area. We walked over to Lumpini Park which was a beautiful and peaceful park right next to the US embassy. We spent some time in the park enjoying a break from the loud city and some quiet time away from the hounding vendors. In the late afternoon we made it to the train station and boarded the train to head to the full moon party. While Bangkok had a lot to offer, we were happy to take a break, knowing that we would be coming back to the city on 2 more occassions.