Bangkok

So, since I've had difficulty motivating myself to write this blog with any sort of regularly, I think I am going to follow my friend Guy's advice and begin writing it every Friday (though if I get any sort of night social life it may become Thursday). Anyway, since I've arrived back from Katt's parents house with Caroline, we stayed in Khon Kaen for only a few days before we decided to travel to Bangkok. While we were in Khon Kaen we helped Katt teach a couple of my Thai friends English by simply conversing with them. This seems to be the preferred method of teaching English in Thailand. Simply conversing with the students and then occasionally pointing out new words or things like that so that they can understand. My main issue with it is that I begin to start talking like they do, meaning, I begin to stop conjugating verbs and using the wrong pronouns, simply so that I am understood. The problem with this of course is the fact that I'm then teaching them absolutely nothing, and I may even be impeding their learning. In any case, the classes were quite hilarious because all the class (which incidentally was all girls) wanted to talk about was boys and what Caroline and I thought of Thai girls and drugs and alcohol etc etc.
The day after class, Caroline and I traveled to Bangkok. We decided to go by bus because it is much cheaper than flying and honestly, a lot more comfortable. While a plane ride to Bangkok is around 250$ the bus was about 25$ per person. The buses are luxury buses and pretty much allow you to fully recline, which is very very nice. In addition, while the plane is about an hour, the bus is only around 6 hours long, which, in the difference in cost and comfort, is well worth it. Caroline and I arrived in Bangkok and decided to stay on a place called Silom Road. The general place for travelers to stay is a road called Kow San Road, but it is extremely touristy, cheap, and therefore a bit gross. Silom is more for the "higher class" travelers that decide to stay and therefore have much cleaner rooms and things like that. We found a place called the HQ Hostel which was actually really really nice. Though it was a hostel, we decided to splurge a bit and get our own 2 person room, which turned out be nicer than my apartment. Since we got in late we decided to just hang around the hostel for the first day. We walked outside and walked down the market that's near there, laughing at the hilarious English on the front of shirts (one was a pair of minnie ears that said "BITCH PLEASE" and another was "This machine accepts 5,10,20,50, and 100$ bills) and trying to decide what to eat. Unfortunately, because we were foreigners and young, we were offered pornography CONSTANTLY. It was extremely annoying. What truly shocked me was the fact that though most of the people offering it was grimy shady characters, there were also some men dressed in suits that would completely surprise us by suddenly turning around and opening their jacket (yes just like the movies) and pulling out pictures for you to choose from or something. After walking around for a while, we decided it was late and went back to the hostel to go to bed.
The next morning we got up and went to Wat Po (the reclining Buddha) it was absolutely spectacular and gigantic. The Buddha is close to 50 ft tall and probably 150 ft long and completely gold. The artistry around the edges of the temple was extremely ornate and beautiful. It is very intricately done and beautifully made. I'll post some pictures so that you can see what I mean. Caroline and I also traveled to Kow San Road which, as  I said before, is a total tourist trap and tourist place. It was actually pretty nice to see a bunch of white people there and we had a few conversations with people there which reinvigorated me English speaking, which has been slowly sliding downhill since not having anyone to talk to (besides Caroline of course). I unfortunately have run out of time to write the rest of this, I'll try to come back and finish it off (there's not much left, mostly us just hanging around and taking boats and stuff to and from our hotel. Then taking the bus back) but I'll post a bunch of pictures now.