I was excited to see the capital city of Thailand Bangkok. As we arrived to the apartment complex, we waited for a while before our host came. The apartment was fairly nice. It had a nice view over Siam square. We were in the more modern part of Bangkok. To go down town we had to take a sky train. It’s a train that is elevated. Then you took a boat.

J’étais très excité de visiter Bangkok, la capitale de la Thailande. Une fois arrivé au complexe, on a du attendre 20 minutes avant que la proprio arrive, on est dans un appart moderne dans le coin des grands malls de Bangkok, on a une jolie vue sur le reste. Pour se rendre dans le centre, on a  pris un train suspendu et puis un bateau, tout ça est très diffèrent de ce que j’ai l’habitude de prendre.

Our first monument was the Grand palace. It was where the king of Thailand lived. You had to put pants and long sleeves as a form of respect. You felt like you were in an oven because in Thailand it is very hot and humid. It was a palace that was composed of amazing sculptures, temples and towers there was one tower that was completely plated in gold. There were sculptures of the monkey god that looked a little bit like dragons that were used to scare away enemies and evil spirits I myself thought they were slightly scary. The roofs were decorated with colorful tiles red, green, and a very bright yellow. There was a giant mural about the story of the Ramayana but all the people were the same sort of monkey god. It was very fascinating. There was a temple with the jade Buddha it was solid jade with a monk’s cloak made of gold. There were 2 towers that were very ornate that stood in front of the throne room. The palace was very big. We visited the What Phra Kaeo museum it had a small sculpture that was made of rhino horns, a rug made of a tiger, and a gong that was held with elephant tusks.

On a visité le Grand Palais, ancienne résidence du roi de Thailande, les gens d’ici adore leur Roi et leur Reine, il y a des photos d’eux partout. Il fallait mettre un pantalon et avoir les épaules couvertes en signe de respect. Mais il faisait très très chaud et humide donc c’était dur j’aurais préfèré être en short. En fait, le complexe est composé de diffèrents édifices comme des temples, des stupas, le palais et d’autres bâtiments pour l’armée. Il y avait beaucoup de bâtiments et de sculptures couleurs or. Les entrées sont protégées par des sculpture de dragons, serpents ou chiens pour chasser les mauvais esprits. Sur les murs autour de l’enceinte, il y a des peintures qui racontent l’histoire du Ramayana (c’est un poème sanscrit qui raconte l’histoire de Rama dont la femme Sita avait été enlevée par Ravana le roi de Lanka)sur  les valeurs humaines. Dans un des temples, j’ai vu le Buddha de Jade. On a aussi pu voir les différents trônes du Roi, ils sont encore utilisés lors de cérémonies. Dans le musée What Phra Kaeo, il y avait une sculpture qui avait été offerte au roi faite de nombreuses cornes de rhinocéros, un tapis en peau de tigre, et un gong soutenu par des défenses d’éléphants. Tout ça était un peu trop à mon goût. 

When we finished visiting the palace we took a taxi to Koh San road. We ate at restaurant that was beachy located in an old teak mansion. We had a green curry that was really good but spicy, green papaya salad and some chicken satays. The bathrooms were smelly. Koh San road is famous for backpackers my parents stayed there when they were much younger. We took a tour of Bangkok in a Tuk Tuk (a small Thai three wheeled vehicle) it is mostly like a motorcycle with a sitting cart in the back. While we were on the tour we saw a standing Buddha that was made of gold mosaics. The driver took us to a suit shop where my dad bought a vest which I thought was a little bit foolish because we were going to come back to Bangkok and he was probably going to lose weight by that time.

On est allé à Koh San road pour le dejeûner, cette rue est très connue pour les gens avec sac à dos, mes parents étaient restés là quand il étaient jeûnes. Le restaurant était dans une ancienne maison coloniale, très jolie, au menu nous avons mangé un curry vert, une salade de papaye verte, des satays (petites brochettes de poulets ), on s’est régalé mais j’ai trouvé que les toilettes ne sentaient pas très bon. Après, on a fait un tour dans Bangkok en tuk tuk sorte de mobylette avec une plateforme où on s’asseoit. On a visité d’autres telles de Buddha, puis le chauffeur nous a amené dans un magasin de tissus où mon père s’est fait faire sur mesure un gilet mais je pense qu’il aurait dû attendre car il va maigrir pendant le voyage.

 
We visited the Jim Thompson house. Jim Thompson was a man that was born in Delaware, United States. He became a socialite, architect and an antique collector. He had a passion for Thai arts and he helped establish the Thai silk industry. When he finally moved to Thailand, he built a house in the jungle (at the time not anymore!). It is made of teak and it was a conjunction of 6 different houses, Thai people use to leave in 1 room house and it was too small for him. In the court yard, they displayed how they got the silk, there was a man that was boiling silk worms, so that he could get the tread out. Then there were ladies spinning and dying the threads. The silk worms feed on mulberry leaves. There was a pond that had a really big fish it looked like an alligator Garry but smaller and had a design on its back. There were a couple turtles. The house was best part. Buddha’s were everywhere. There where these sort of tall planks of wood that were used to make robbers fall. The house had a very tranquil feeling. The furniture was made out of very dark wood and it was very minimal. A big tree was over the house, there were squirrels and bird’s nests. Near the restaurant there was a pond full of coy that had very big tails, the complex had a wonderful atmosphere of calm even if it stood now in the very busy town of Bangkok. The shop was cool it had stuffed elephants made from a very high quality silk.

On a visité la maison de Jim Thompson, un américain. Né dans une famille aisée, il fût agent secret, architecte, collectionneur d’antiquité et se passionna pour la production de soie qui était en déclin en Thailande. Il a acheté 6 maisons en teck au nord du pays et en a fait une seule qu’il a installé près d’un cours d’eau dans la jungle de Bangkok (maintenant elle est dans la jungle urbaine!). Dans la cour, on a vu le processus pour obtenir un fils de soie. Un homme faisait bouillir des vers a1 soie pour pouvoir les filer. Puis une femme filait plusieurs fils ensemble pour en faire un fils qui ne se casserait pas, et après ils sont teints et tissés. J’ai appris plein de choses. Dans de gros pots de fleurs il y avait des nénuphars avec de tous petits poissons rouges, et une mare avec de grandes carpes japonaises (ça m’a fait penser à ceux des papi et mamie), des tortues et un drôle de poisson. La maison était très belle, sobre et pleine de Buddhas, très tranquille. Le magasin avec la soie produite par la compagnie Jim Thompson avait de très belle choses, un peu chères.

We saw a very big mall my dad and I visited a shop that had some really cool things like a small remote control vehicle with 2 wheels and it could jump. Bikes that could fold, the nerf modulus gun it could transform into a different gun by changing the accessories. We also watch Thai boxing.

Notre résidence était près de plusieurs centres commerciaux tous plus grands les uns que les autres. J’en ai visité un assez cool avec mon père dans un magasin, il y avait un véhicule à télécommande avec seulement 2 roues qui pouvait sauter. Des vélos qui se pliaient, même un pistolet nerf qui se transformait en changeant les accessoires. On a aussi regardé des matchs de boxe thaïlandaise

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Wat Pho was definitely the most impressive temple I had ever seen it was similar to the Grand palace but it had the lying Buddha the 45ft high 150ft long Buddha that was plated in gold. It was so amazing how the gold shined and it was just so incredible. It was too bad that the feet were being repaired because they were made of mother of pearl. Around the temples there were lots of towers with sculptures of animals. There was a room that had at least 45 Buddha’s. The roofs were the same sort of red green and yellow tile as in the grand palace. There was an old white temple that looked unvisited for years but was cool looking. In a special place you could see the gold Buddha a good sized Buddha that was solid gold if you steel that you’re definitely rich but it’s almost impossible to steel it. The rest was very much alike to the grand palace.

J’ai visité le grand Buddha couché de Wat Pho, il fait 43 m de long et 15m de haut, le plus impressionnant  que j’ai jamais vu tellement il était grand, plaqué or. On a malheureusement pas pu voir ses pieds qui son recouverts de nacre car ils étaient en rénovation. Autour de ce temple, il y en avait plein d’autres, avec leurs toits d’ardoises de toutes les couleurs. Je n’ai jamais vu autant de Buddhas, car toutes les enceintes étaient entourées de buddhas assis, buddhas debouts etc. Dans un des temples, il y avait un Buddha assis en or massif pas très grand mais quand même ça fait beaucoup d’or.

We ate at a Korean restaurant that was really good. You could actually cook your own food. You ate your meat in a lettuce leaf. If you put rice with it, it was really good. My favorite was the pork the chicken was also really good. It was definitely on of my top favorite restaurant in Thailand.
Sadly our amazing stay in Bangkok ended and we had to leave for Kanchanaburi.

Près de notre appart il y avait un restaurant Coréen où tu faisais ton propre barbecue et c’était super bon, on y est pas mal allé. J’ai beaucoup aimé. On va partir de Bangkok pour Kanchanaburi.