Scott and Jen in Southeast Asia: Bangkok, Thailand

We first arrived in Bangkok back in early April after leaving Nepal. Upon arriving, we learned of the growing unrest among the Thai people and the resulting protests by ‘The Red Shirts’. The protests were taking place in and around the popular Khao San Road district (as we would find out personally), so we focused our sight-seeing on other areas and figured we would see more when we came back to Bangkok after going to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

However, when it came time for us to return to Bangkok (a few weeks ago), the city was still in turmoil (US embassy closed and travel advisory in effect, mandatory city-wide curfew, etc.) so we ended up scooting right through the city once again and heading to less turbulent areas in the southern part of Thailand.

All the pictures and stories we have are from our first, brief visit back in early April…

Royal Grand Palace

The side walls of one of the Wats is painted with depictions of battles and other notable periods of Thai history…

Gold leaf inlay on some of the paintings…

Wat Arun

A 46 meter long, 15 meter high reclining Buddha

The feet of the Buddha inlayed with mother of pearl

Another one of the many Buddhas we would see in Thailand

Red Shirt Rally

After going to the Grand Palace and a couple Wats, we began walking towards Kho San Road and found ourselves close to one of the Red Shirt protests that would plague the city for weeks to come. As the protests were non-violent at this point, we felt safe observing from a distance. However, after about 20 minutes, everyone in the crowd near us started running away from the main square… and we followed! Watching the news later that night, we learned that several Red Shirts and Thai military were injured when things turned violent.

Lumphini Park

On recommendation from one of our friends, we spent a morning at Lumphini Park… the main city park in Bangkok. It was beautiful, relaxing and a bit off of the main tourist track.

Morning Thai Chi