No ankles, no chest, no elbows, no stomach, no shoulders, and no flip flops was the dress code for The Grand Palace. I wore my only possible outfit and headed out. I felt a bit too strong a sense of accomplishment for being one of the only tourists not turned away at the door the first time.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. In my long black dress, sunglasses, and black sun umbrella I was fit for a funeral... But what a structure.
Bangkok was warm. Every day it would climb to over a 100 (so much impressive than 37) and just stop. Walking outside was akin to swimming. The weather did wonders for my hair, and my appearance in general. I had no clue I was capible of sweating so profusely. Delightful.
To quote Beyoncé, "I woke up like this."
Now that I could all but be recruited to the Cape Town and Hungarian tourist boards, I'll try out for the Thai one. Thailand is the perfect "Asian Starter Country." You get culture, but it's not so foreign that you suffer from culture shock (you can wear what you'd wear at home, for example.) It's very easy to get around, I took a boat taxi almost every day that got me quickly where I needed to go and metros everywhere else. There's even a train in the basement of the airport that connects to the metro. The food is amazing. Even though I wasn't careful about ice (the water isn't drinkable) I was not sick at all. It's cheap, like really cheap, especially outside of Bangkok. I stayed in the best hostel I've ever stayed in (more on that later.) The shopping is amazing. I spent 7.5 hours on the Saturday milling around a massive outdoor market of 15,000 stalls. There's such variety in Thailand. Even though I stuck to Bangkok and Chiang Mai (a city in the far north) for my project, I've heard wonderful things about the islands, the jungles, and the beaches. But the reason I'd call it perhaps the best destination for travelers who want adventure but are not adventurous and solo travelers is that it's set up for tourism in the best possible way. I never felt unsafe, unwelcome, or tried to be sold anything (I know!) There weren't stares or hard selling. Bargaining is accepted, but it has to be done in a very polite fashion. If you start too low your business is refused. I found most people to be extremely polite, friendly and respectful. (Except for one demographic) I found the tourists to also be relatively polite and friendly.
Shuttle Boat
Sadly, the sex trade is alive and well in Bangkok, and it shows. As terribly depressing as it was, the upside was I had no stares, no weird calling out, touching or anything.
Though my body's natural defenses of frizz, sweat and reddening probably could be cited for this as well.
