I first went to Thailand in April, 2008. I wanted to meet my friend there. She was thinking about re-locating to Thailand.
On our first day in Bangkok together, we took a tour of the city by riverboat. The boat ride took around 1 hour. We saw more of Bangkok during that ride than we ever did during a walking tour. During the ride, a woman in a sampan paddled up to us and offered us refreshments. We felt really wonderful,with the fresh breeze in our face and Bangkok moving all around us!
During our stay, we visited the Wat Po Buddhist temple. This is home to the statue of the reclining Buddha, one of the leading tourist attractions in Bangkok. The statue is 18 meters high and 48 meters long. We said prayers by the statue as a token of respect. We walked around the temple grounds and were greatly impressed by the grand design of it all. The temple is definitely worth a second look for tourists.
In our travels, we visited the Royal Lapidary jewelry exchange. Thailand is one of the leading sources of precious stones in the world. The display of precious stones in the exchange there is superb! My friend and i did not buy any jewels there, only gifts for our friends. A word to the wise, there have been many reports of scams with gems. Gems that are not authentic, or jewels where no refunds were allowed after purchase. We cannot attest to that as we did not buy any stones there.
On our last night in Bangkok, my friend and I went to a nice Thai restaurant near our hotel. We ordered ostrich steak! It was great and yes - it tasted just like chicken! My friend decided not to relocate to Thailand. We left Bangkok. She returned to the Philippines and I returned to the U.S.
My impressions of Thailand are generally favorable. However, there are many con artists and scams in Bangkok which tourists should be on the alert for. My advice to tourists is to not to be too trusting of strangers and use your good intuition and judgement.
I know that the great majority of Thai people are wonderful. That is why they call Thailand - the land of smiles!
I am a native New Yorker and have lived in New York all of my life. During the past few years I have developed a passion for travel. Since 2007, i have been to China, Thailand and the Philippines. My travels in the U.S. have been few; my main travel interest is in Asia. My blog and website address are listed below: Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_W_Stewart |
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