Last Weekend in Bangkok

Friday morning the van picked us up for the closing ceremony of the camp. During the ceremony each camp leader received a group picture of the camp leaders and campers, a nice leather bound RMUTP portfolio notepad and DVD of the opening ceremony. Lunch was served buffet style in a dinning hall. I sat with my group. The gave me a shirt that said, “I’m Corbin” with group 1 on it. They also made Waymon one too. The group also made me a collage of picture from the camp and activities we had done together.

After everyone finished lunch Brittnii, Waymon, Emily and I were the only ones that decided o partake in karaoke. We preformed a few songs including “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog”. It was requested by one of the executives of the school.

After we finished up with lunch we al headed back to the hotel. Waymon had just found out that he had a presentation to do at the Prime Ministers office next week so I went along with him to get a suit tailored for him. We went to the Nana stop on the BTS in search for “Rajawongse.” It was fairly easy to find. Once we got into th store he started pinning fabrics he liked. He ended up choosing a grey suit and four shirt colors, 2 white, one pink and a orange/yellow color. Very nice selection of fabric and design of color. He then put down a payment of 5000Baht, it will cost 16,000Baht in all. That is around $530 for a custom suit, four shirts and a tie. As a token of appreciation Victor gave Waymon 12 beer glasses that are super nice. I forgot to mention while he was getting measured I read different article they had framed on the walls. The to brothers, Jesse and Victor, have been making suits for years. Their company produces 30 suits a day and 180 shirts. They employ 250 workers. A big claim to fame is them making suits for President Georgia H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush and Governor Jeb Bush. No big deal, haha, pretty awesome to say you have a suit made by the same brothers that made suits for the Bush family.

After the suit experience we came back for the hotel and crashed until Andrew came in from work. We all told him about the day he had missed. The group decided to order in room service before we went out for a little while. Room service at this hotel is great.

After we finished eating and getting ready we headed out for a few hours on KhaoSan Road. We called it an early night because we were to be picked up early for tours on Saturday.

Saturday morning the van and Andreas picked us up at 10 for to different tours. We first went to the Dusit throne hall. In this beautiful part of palace grounds there are different types of throne the royal family has used in the last 60 years. There are also gifts the family has received. I couldn’t help but get caught up in the ceiling of this palace. It was breath taking. Many of the thrones in this hall, actually all, were covered in gold and diamonds, then a layer of beautiful beetle wings. Beetle wings covered everything.  In this hall women had to buy a sarong to wear. All royal grounds women are to wear dresses or skirts. That has been my only complaint about the trip is wearing pants and skirts in 90 plus degree weather.

After throne all we went to a great barbeque restaurant. It is said to be the best barbeque in Thailand, and I would have to agree. We had chicken, fish, crab and prawn. The sauces were delicious. Vinnamek Teak Mansion was next on the list of tours. It was one of the summer homes of King Rama V. He had this brought in piece by piece from an island. This house is massive.

After a long day of tours Emily, Brittnii, Waymon, Andrew and I took a short nap. At 7 I went with Waymon for another fitting for his suit. It was so cool to see how they pinned the suit to hit him and then add the sleeves. Suit making is an art for sure. After the fitting we met the other three at Paragon for dinner and to see Men in Black 3: 3D. The movie was really good, I enjoyed it even though I’ve never been into the other MIB movies.

Sunday morning started bright and early at 8:30 with an hour long ride to Autthaya. Once we got there we toured another palace ground of King Rama V and still used to this day for Royal entertainment. It was beautiful. On these grounds were many gifts that we buildings. One from the Chinese Business Bureau and another building given by Muslims. King Rama loved Italian architecture and you can see this in the building that he had built. They are very European looking compared to the Thai style of other places. The next stop was the old ruins of Autthaya. This was the old capitol of Siam. Through the years since the 1300’s the place has become dilapidated. The floods of last fall almost took out the entire ruins.

It was only around 3 when we got back from the excursion. So once again we all crashed. After a wonderful nap we decided to head to China Town for dinner on the streets. When I talk about street food it isn’t something terrible. All of the best food and great prices come from street vendors. Literally tables places in the streets for you to eat at. We all had chicken and rice for 30Baht, that’s a whole dollar. The best $1 meal I’ve ever had. After dinner we walked around to see what else Chine Town had to offer. We then headed back to the hotel because we bought “The Devil Inside” on iTunes. Needless to say after watching that movie we were scared to sleep.

We are now in the last few days in Bangkok. I am very sad it is coming to an end so soon.