reflections of hope: Thailand

Hey everyone! I am back from Thailand and all settled back in for the remaining THREE?! weeks I have left in India. The trip was much needed and extremely fabulous- I fell in love with the country and still feel like there was so much to see. The flight from here was only two hours which was great. I went with Joe, a Legal Fellow from our office, and we met up in Bangkok with my friend Christina from Mumbai and three friends from Chennai.

As soon as we got off the plane I had a mini round of culture shock... Traffic rules were followed and trash cans lined the sides of the road. People waited in lines for the metro. The cabs were air conditioned. It was crazy. For the next six days we were all basically in awe of the differences between Thailand and India. The shopping is a-mazing, and for the first time in 8 months I didn't feel like a total hoochie mama for exposing my knees! Voratida met us down there for the weekend, and she and her mom showed us how to dine like A-listers. Voratida's mom took us to High Tea at the Grand Hyatt and lunch at the InterContinental. Then she took me on our own personal shopping trip to this mall that made me salivate as soon as we got in the parking deck. 5 levels: floors 1-2 were packed with wholesale clothes, 3-4 had thousands of pairs of shoes (and anyone who knows me knows that shoes have been my weakness since about age 3) and the top floor was all bags. My bank account should recover one day.

We also went to markets and to see some of the most popular sights of Bangkok- the smiling Buddha and the Grand Palace. The architecture was so interesting and different from anything I have seen before. After spending the weekend in the city we headed to the island of Koh Samet for the rest of the week. It was about what I imagine paradise to be like. We relaxed, ate, read, sunned, motorbiked, swam, toured, and I came back totally and completed refreshed. Here are some pictures:

I met up with Addies little bro Griffith my first night in!! He had just arrived for a 5 week study abroad program and it was super fun to see a familiar face from the 'West!'

Thai Iced Tea and the M&M cabs

Skyline from our hotel room in the city

A huuuge gold Buddha statue

Me and the boys in a tuk tuk

Entrance to the Grand Palace. There were some interesting rules here, like boys can't wear shorts and girls can't show their shoulders. We waited in line for about 20 minutes for the boys to borrow some hilarious pajama pants to wear inside. I had on full-length leggings, thinking that those would suffice.