Gratitude. Feeling just so incredibly grateful. For Thailand, this beautiful bustling country. For my parents wanting to fly halfway around the world to see me! And who booked a nice hotel where I could have a REAL shower and sleep in a REAL bed and jump in a pool and eat Thai food! So much gratitude for Thai food. And for being a part of this big beautiful world, and exploring it with the two people who brought me into it.

My parents got intl Bangkok at about 1:00am and the next day we got up early so we could start our adventures!

We are pretty big fans of TIE-land 😉

Let the dad jokes begin!

Stared the day off with a big breakfast at a place called Otto's, where I greatly enjoyed some picture-perfect bacon, the first taste of meat I'd had in months! Afterwards we took the (very-easy-to-navigate) trains to the river where we caught a river boat taxi. Somehow we ended up getting to sit on the very front of the boat so we enjoyed the best 180 views with the mist and wind in our hair

Priceless!

Happy happy! 

As we wandered onto the streets, an incredibly nice student came over to us and took her time patiently explaining to us the time constraints of certain monuments in the area, saving us from going to ones that weren't open yet. What's more, she made some suggestions of equally beautiful sites to check out that cost much less AND hailed us a tuktuk driver who she explained our destinations to (and got us a good price). And our driver was awesome. The people of Thailand have won us over!!

He took us to a place called Wat Saket (Golden Mount) where we walked stairs through jungle plants up to rooms with beautiful gold encrusted Buddhas.

Up one more set of stairs was the massive golden spike shooting to the sky from the top of the building, and beautiful views of Bangkok in all directions. Mom rang a massive gong, then we descended to the see the next place.  

A massive standing Buddha, radiating in gold

And another massive Buddha sitting in a monk monastery

The attention to detail in every square inch of the places we visited was incredible and intentional and colorful. It was well worth the morning scrambling to make it to some of these beautiful places in Bangkok, and to get a glimpse into this massive metropolis. 

We made it back to the hotel in time to take a quick dip in the pool before checking out. It felt inexplicably incredible to be submerged in some cool water, a taste of what we get to look forward to on the islands!

We made it over to the train station, got some pad Thai and fried rice, and settled down into our seats on the train, where we'd be for the next 11 hours to our stop Surat Thani in the south. We got to enjoy a classic Asia sunset through the palm trees, huts, and buildings.

After a couple hours, the train men began setting up our sleeping bunks. We all had upper bunks with our own bedding and pillow and privacy curtain. 

More on the commencement of our crazy travel day soon!