Thailand!

Last week, I spent 4 days or so in Bangkok, Thailand. One other SALTer in Cambodia, LynAnne, and I met up with a SALTer in Laos, Whitney. This was a crazy last minute planned trip, totally southeast asia style, and we went in with our only expectation being 'Starbucks please.' And like all last minute planned things in SE Asia, it worked out pretty dang well. Here are the high lights:

• Street food- very different than the stuff you see in Cambodia. I loved the custard cups, fresh squeezed orange juice, burrito (I know, I don't think it was actually Thai lol), and grilled chicken.
  
• Great conversations with LynAnne and Whitney comparing experiences, joys and frustrations. It felt like our own mini mid year retreat. I feel very refreshed to return to my life in Cambodia for the remaining 4 ish months.
• Grand Palace- one word: Sparkly
• Reclining Buddha- 40 meters of giant, golden, Buddha-ness. The most impressive Buddha I've seen this year- and I've seen quite a lot
• The joy of being in malls again. Phnom Penh has two, but the ones in Bangkok are nicer than any I've ever been to in the States. Think Gucci, Versace, Burberry- nothing we could afford in there!
• Seeing Andy and Lana, our regional MCC reps, and their new arrival, Aaron. They had been in town for the birth and headed back to Cambodia a day before us. So, we were officially the first to see him on the MCC team. : ) Very cute.
• Seeing a movie in a movie theater- even if it was a depressing European movie
• Visiting a floating market- a market on two sides of a river, with some people selling food right off their boats.
  
• A boat trip on the Mekong at night to see fireflies- 1000s of them
• And of course, Starbucks- twice. Yum.
  

One other thought- we discovered a funny and sometimes frustrating phenomenon in Bangkok (I like to call it the Bangkok Tourist Conspiracy). There's this scam where while you are happily walking down the street to your destination with your map, a nice Thai person strikes up a conversation. Where are you going? The Grand Palace. Oh its closed this morning. (a tuk tuk happens to pull up alongside you). You should take this tuk tuk to see the standing Buddha. Its free today, but it usually costs money. You really should go. I'll negotiate the price with this tuk tuk for you. And in you get, only to discover that the Grand Palace isn't closed, the standing Buddha is always free, and that really wasn't a nice man at all but a guy who knew you were an easy target and was in cahoots with the tuk tuk driver. We fell for the scheme once, seeing not the standing Buddha but another pagoda. We then realized this happens all the time. We must have been told the Grand Palace and other attractions were closed and we should go to the standing Buddha by at least 6 people over the course of the few days- totally random people, including one in a totally fake tourist police costume. I couldn't believe it! We quickly learned to ignore tuk tuk drivers completely. The high light is its now a running joke that our experience in Bangkok wasn't really complete because we didn't see the standing Buddha! ha!

Bangkok was great, a massive, cosmopolitan megopolis. But, I'm glad to be back in Phnom Penh, my home away from home. Its amazing how much speaking the language even a little makes life easier. I'm suddenly more grateful for Phnom Penh's negotiable traffic, friendly people, more laid back pace. This year may be ruining my ability to be just a tourist. But, its good to be reminded how much I love this place- and I have less than 4 months to go! Crazy