As much as I love art, food and many more I am also a fan of architecture. I am fascinated with buildings- old and new, details, design, space, the person behind it, history, how it was built, the inspiration and more. About 50 miles North of Bangkok we all went to visit the Historic City of Ayutthaya it is a marvelous place to visit with so many temples, monasteries, towers and old relics of the Siamese Kingdom, it was one of the richest kingdom during the 16th century.

Here are some of the images from the UNESCO World Heritage Site City of Ayutthaya

When you travel to different parts of South East Asia you will always encounter foods that might be weird to eat in your culture but might not be in theirs. I have eaten so many weird stuff - silk worms, cobra meat that was cooked in Chinese herbs, pigeon meat, crispy fried crickets, stuffed frogs and many more. So, when I saw the creepy critters street food in the streets of Bangkok I knew I had to try one. :)

They have also the same things I have eaten before - silk worms and crickets but I was not prepared to taste a scorpion or a cockroach. Hahaha! I am not afraid to eat it, I am just afraid of the health issues (poison, bacteria, and etc.) So, I tried another insect that would less likely to kill me. :)

One of the busiest streets and the melting pot of tourist. It caters to all budget travelers from hotel, airfare, tours and shopping. I've been wanting to visit this place I heard there's a lot of shops there and a great place to explore.. :) And Cheer was so kind to take me there.  We took a short train ride to the nearest pier and a boat ride going there. I enjoyed the boat ride it was refreshing after a really hot day, not only that I was able to catch the sunset. :) What a lovely day!

I LOVE FOOD!!!! All different types of cuisine I'll even try the weird ones (more on that later..) Food is always part of my travel, I have to try the local food and hope that I don't get sick or anything..so far I am all good. And I realized how delicious and healthy Thai food is and since I have a lot of time I enrolled in a short course cooking class with my friend Shun.

Let me introduce you to my good old friend Shunichi Arai aka "SHUN" a salsa traveler and one of the bright minds of Japan in the IT/ Software industry. We go way back in Seoul, Korea we were classmates at EWHA Women's University. He's been living in Thailand for 3 months and it did not surprised me that in such a short time he learned basic Thai conversation. His passion is Salsa and Food. :) So, who else should I invite to join me right?

My weekend in Bangkok was a blast! I think a single entry won't be enough for all the stories I have - Good and Bad. I have to sort 1,000+ pictures and not even including Kim's camera, I never really had time to do it there because of my packed and hectic schedule, as Shun said "your schedule is very aggressive." and I think so too! Hahaha!

Talk about OVER culture immersion! thinking back now I was a little bit crazy! Hahaha. Anyway, I just think there is so much to do and see in Bangkok and I don't want to waste my time. And I am so THANKFUL that I did not get sick or fainted from the 33-39 degrees Celsius dry heat or had diarrhea from all the street food I ate and even better because I did not gain weight. Seriously! :)

My legs and feet still hurts from all the walking, my hair is so dry, and my skin so dark - my mother calls me "negra" now and my dogs were barking at me when they saw me at the door yesterday (they did not recognize me! hahaha!) I told my mom not to worry my skin will get lighter in 3 years. Hahaha! :) 

This journey would not be complete with out my dear friends (we all went on different dates and just met there) and new friends I met from different parts of the world. I feel alive again! Now, back to reality and I have to concentrate on my final paper. :)
 
PS.
My next entries will be all about my adventures in Bangkok I hope you will not get sick of reading about it. Thanks for reading my journal. 

Enjoy!
  

First thing on my list when I arrived at Bangkok was I have to learn Muay Thai. You may think it was an unusual choice but I actually grew up with my dad as a Karate Instructor and my brother as a Judo champion. I was always the one cheering for them but I never actually tried any martial arts until now and where else could be the best place for me to learn Muay Thai and be trained by experts.

I was still sleepy from my bad flight (more on that later) it was 6am I was looking for a taxi but the street was empty I only saw a scooter taxi and I rode my first scooter taxi. I showed the address to this old man and he said he will take me there but when we arrived we saw nothing just a vacant lot then I asked Cheer to talked to him and give the directions but he was getting frustrated and was already giving up on me then I saw a foreigner running with his Muay Thai boxing shorts and asked if he knows and goes to the gym that I was looking for and fortunately he goes there too. So, he gave directions and the driver and I tried to looked for it but he was getting impatient and just dropped me off in the middle of Silom Street. GRRR!!! (If only I already knew Muay Thai... Hmp!).

Anyway, so I walked around and saw the guy again and asked him to direct me to the place. When I got inside I saw a big white guy - it was DAN. I introduced myself and went to change right away and he instructed me to do some stretching and jump rope for 15 minutes. I must say it was really tiring just for stretching.. whhheeewww !!!! (And I did not eat breakfast yet...)


So, Dan taught me the basics - how to stand, balance, where the hands should be placed, basic punch, kick, defense, position, footwork, exercise and etc. I was thinking to myself.. Oppss.. I will die after this session. :) And also there's a lot of things I learned about my body.

1. I don't have balance
2. I don't have power & strength even though I've been trying my best to be fit.
3. The left side of my body is weak (muscles)
4. I cannot twist my waist
5. My footwork SUCKS!
6. There's a lot of muscles in my body that I have never used before.
7. My body is not flexible and lastly I don't have grace (BOOO!)

After practicing for few minutes he asked his assistant trainer to train me with the pads inside the ring. I climbed inside the ring and imagined a background voice saying LET'S GET READY TO RUMMMBLLLEEE!!! Hahaha!
The trainer thought I was Thai and when I said Filipino he started calling me Pacquiao! The boxing pad work out was really an amazing experience and before I knew it I was throwing punches and kicking the hand pads and the sound of it makes me want to kick it more. (I wish I have a boxing ring inside my house..sigh...) After resting a bit, Dan asked me to practice with the punching bags which I thought was a bit soft but I was wrong. My legs hurt so much from kicking it and my knuckles from punching it.


My whole body was so SORE and I was so TIRED but I really ENJOYED my first Muay Thai lesson and I will surely go back. Thank you DAN I had such a great time learning. Now, I hope to find a Muay Thai training gym near my place if anyone knows a gym near Malate, Manila kindly message me. 

Here is a short video clip of Dan practicing with boxing pad



For anyone interested to learn Muay Thai and is currently in Bangkok City
Contact Fighting Spirit Gym - http://fightingspiritgym.com/
Look for Dan Lyons at +66 (0)85-966-7898

My fun day for last week was FUN DIVE day!!!! and the most exciting part was Leander, Beng, Kathrina, Weng and Cherry will join Me, Mike and Sir Raymond. Leander will do INTRO dive with Mike as his buddy (btw, Mike is taking his Master Diver course) Beng, Kathrina, Weng and Cherry will be snorkeling while Sir Raymond and I will do fun dive and take photos. I tried to take as many photos as I can. I hope you all enjoy it. 

(Some photos are courtesy of: Sir Raymond, Leander and Cherry) Thank you guys! Let's do this again!

First dive was at BEBOT'S Rock (105 ft.) the dive site has light current and is full of corals, fishes, underwater plants, and some critters that I am still amazed even though I've seen it many times. :)