Bangkok

Hello! To the next person coming to Bangkok: I would highly recommend that you visit Wat Pho. Wat Pho is one largest temple complexes in Bangkok, and it is also home to the Reclining Buddha. The reclining Buddha is the largest Buddha in the area, and it is around 46 meters long. While most people go to Wat Pho just to see the reclining Buddha, I highly recommend that you see the rest of the temples. With a free entrance if you wear your school uniform, Wat Pho is huge and full of beautiful temples and cool structures. As you walk through the grounds, you will literally have to squint because the temples are so bright and shiny. With a white base, the roofs are what really stand out. The roofs are usually red and blue and covered in shiny rocks and sequin-like designs. They literally glint when the sun hits them. Wat Pho is a must for a traditional, cultural experience. Other than the temples in Wat Pho, I also recommend the temple of Wat Arun. More than anything, however, I'...

Hello! By far the food smell that I associate most with Bangkok, is the smell of either meat cooking or being freshly cooked. Meat is an absolute must in almost every Thai meal, so you are likely to find it anywhere and everywhere. As you walk down any main street in Bangkok, you are likely to pass many many food stalls. If you pay attention, well, even if you don't pay attention you'll notice that most of these sell meat. I would say that close to 80-90% of all food stalls sell some kind of meat, either it's pork, or chicken, or beef, or duck, or fish. I would say that maybe fish and chicken might be the most popular options. In other words, if you don't want to get hungry, I recommend staying in your house or dorm all day because if you leave your safe-hold, you will smell the aroma of meat and get hungry. The smell of meat affects everyone, no matter if you're vegan or vegetarian. I can say this as a fact because my older who is vegan actually came to vis...

Hello! This week I'm going to be talking about the differences I have noticed between American food and Thai food.  For starters, before coming to Thailand, I always joked with my family and friends that I would gain "so much weight," over in Thailand because of how much I love to eat. When I happened to check my weight maybe two months into my study abroad experience, however, I was shocked and obviously happy that my weight had stayed the same. "It's probably because the food here is so healthy," I remember my friend saying. Hmmm is it though? After living and eating in Bangkok for the past four months, I can say that I'm not sure if the food is healthier, or just more fresh (which could be considered "healthier" I guess). When you walk down any street, the food stalls there are always bursting with fresh vegetables ready to be used. The vegetables used in some of the food are hand-grown by farmers and then sent to these food stalls, whic...

Hello! This week I'm going to talk about the local's favorite food! For starters, Thai people absolutely love their meat. I would even dare say that you can find raw meat or meat being cooked in 90% of the food stalls that line the streets. Leaving my campus, there is a street that is fully packed with food stalls and outdoor restaurants. Whenever I walk through there, there is meat hanging and being displayed everywhere. Cooked chicken and duck bodies hang from stalls, and drawers hold pieces of meet, big and small. Specifically though. Thai people love selling small pieces of meat on a stick, kind of like a kebab or skewer. They mainly sell beef and chicken skewers. There's really no way to distinguish between beef and pork skewers without tasting them, however, due to my observations, I assume that they don't each much pork in Bangkok. Thai people sell kebabs, as in sticks with both meat and vegetables, and they also sell just meat on the stick. You can get t...

Hello! This week I am excited to talk about my favorite food which I have tried so far here in Bangkok. For starters, a food which I would eat every day if I could is fried chicken with yellow curry and rice! Now I know what you might think, why curry? Even though I personally don't know much about the origin of curry, I usually think about Indian food whenever someone mentions curry. If you are the same way, you might be wondering why I am eating curry in Thailand. Well, for whatever reason, curry is actually super popular in Thailand. You can find curry and chicken in almost every menu of Thai food. After doing some research, I found that Thailand actually has its own set of "Thai curries." There is green curry, red curry, and yellow curry, these three are the most popular kind of curries in Thailand. The difference between them is the core ingredients that make the curry its color. I'm not too sure how original curry is supposed to taste like, but the curry h...

Hello! Living in Bangkok is definitely much different than living in Baltimore County. These differences are what has changed me to become a more adventurous person who is willing to try new things. For starters, I have never personally liked cities or night time. Being from Baltimore, and frequenting New York City often, I have never really liked walking around or hanging out in the cities at night. For me, night time has always been "stay at home time." While you may argue that these sentiments are justified with me being from Baltimore, I also don't necessarily feel safe at night in Manhattan either, even though it is considered a safe city in comparison. In Bangkok however, for whatever reason, I do feel pretty safe walking in the streets at night, and I actually quite enjoy it. This is probably because the streets in Bangkok are always really lively, but especially at night once everyone is off work. The streets are lit with the glow of the many food stands a...