Jim Thompson and Khaosan

This weekend was midterm break at school. Yaaaaaaay. haha I had Thursday and Friday off, so it was a wonderfully long 4 day weekend. I was impressed with myself for actually getting up and doing things instead of just sitting around in my nice cool air conditioned apartment. Once you get into a routine here, you forget that you live in a really cool city and it's nice to go out and do "touristy" things to remind you of that.

Thursday I got up and went exploring around Siam. Siam is where a lot of shopping is. haha Expensive shopping though, so I'm usually not over there. I hadn't really gotten to explore it much before, so it was a lot of fun. I actually went down to a huge food court they have to look at all the Thai food. haha I like food and cooking, so it's really interesting for me to go and look at all the snacks like dried fish, durian chips, Thai rice crackers, and sugar coated cashew nuts. Then that night I actually got to go to Blue's Bar. Apparently, it's "our place" and we "go there way too often", but I always seem to miss these times when we "go there way too often" because I work early in the mornings. I've actually only been there twice now. haha Anyways, it was fun.

Friday, Kate, Tricia and I met up at Coyote, a mexican restaurant, where we had a great mexican buffet before heading out to the Jim Thompson House and Museum. Jim Thompson was an American architecht who found himself in Thailand after seving in World War II. He started a Thai silk company, which is quite a big deal here. He also built this amazingly beautiful traditional Thai house. The house is pretty interesting because in architectural aspects it is Thai, but he furnished it with things from all over the world like Belgium crystal chandeliers and Chinese porcelain. I was pretty excited about going here because my mom became a little bit obsessed with the Jim Thompson outlet in Pattaya. haha I wanted to look at the real store here in Bangkok, but apparently it isn't at the house- it's actually pretty close to where I live, so I will definitely have to check it out sometime.

The outside of the house...

Jim Thompson Thai silk...

The antique room inside...

After the three of us finished up there, we headed to Khaosan to walk around and hang out. Khaosan is the backpackers district in Bangkok. The first time I ever came to Bangkok I hung out there during the day, but honestly I had no idea where I was because I wasn't familiar with anthing yet. haha The only other times I have been there are at night when we are too busy dancing to really look around, so it was good to go during the day and check out the shopping and things. The street is just packed with shopping stands and food stands. There were so many things I wanted to buy, but couldn't, which is prolly a good thing. haha It's cute though. Lots and lots of crazy backpackers, haha.

That night we went bowling! I love bowling and I hadn't been since I was in Cambodia, so it was great fun. Bowling must def be an American thing because all the balls were weighed in pounds and the shoes were in American sizes. The shoes were prolly one of the best parts of this bowling experience, because mine were actually too big! haha I've had such a difficult time with shoes and my rabbit feet... hahaha Anyways, it was wonderful.

I'm gonna go try to learn some Thai! All my friends are better at it then me, hahaha. I really need to catch up, especially since I've been here the longest! haha