Bangkok Part II

Hey I never said I was cool
(Photo credit: Samithy Heng)

I hope people don't mind that by this point, all I'm essentially doing is posting up photos of my ATYAP activities in Bangkok rather than going through to thoroughly explain our day by day activities. To be honest though, most of what I wanted to say about Thai culture and living in Thailand has already been covered in my first few posts when I was still covering the teaching in Ubon Ratchathani. All the other stuff we did in Bangkok was just an added bonus. 

Previous posts about living and volunteering in Thailand:

• Arrival in Thailand
• A Month in Thailand: Official Business
• A FanTHAIstic Adventure
• Teaching in Ubon Ratchathani Province 
• Teaching in Ubon: Part II
• Missing Thailand: Post Travel Depression
• Living in Ubon: Food Pics, Mafia, Karaoke and Movie Nights 
• Overnight stay at the International Forest Monastery 
• Zoos, Rivers and Giant Mushrooms in Ubon Ratchathani
• Bangkok

The Floating Markets

The precision with which these painted ceramics is on a whole other level. I reckon their hands are steady enough to perform surgery on brains.

Vising the Ministry of Culture for more official business (aka snacking on Thai desserts and getting snap happy with important people)

Aaaaand another important meeting

Well howdy Bangkok - ya lookin' mighty fine today, clouds and all

Candid.

Muay Thai Live! This was a staged performance combining Muay Thai fighting and various dramatic storylines. Afterwards though, they set up an actual ring and had two rounds of real fighting.

Adventures in Ancient Siam - a "theme park" where famous structures in South East Asia are built to one third of their original size.

Cutie patooties

Photo credit: Samithy Heng

And I suppose I shall end here on that lovely photo of Sam's. The trip to Ancient Siam marked our last actual adventure in Thailand. Afterwards, our bus took us back to the city where we met up with everyone else to have our last actual team dinner before heading back to city. Lots of drunk karaoke and good food was had and we ended up spending the rest of the evening at Khaosan road where Celine and I got henna tattoos to commemorate our time in Bangkok. We found a place to dance and party it up for one last time with the group before heading back to the hotel. Emotions were pretty intense on that night as people grappled with the reality that we would be back in Sydney by that time tomorrow night. But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. But I suppose it is in their impermanence that they are made all the sweeter. And of course, the memories that I made in Thailand, the people I met and the amazing, life changing experiences I had - they're things that will stay with me always.